Volume 105 Issue 7

The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 105, Issue 7

Controversy Arises From New Study Abroad Partnership

USG Discusses Increase in Student Activity Fees

By ANTONI ZLATANOVSKI

By SOFIA SEMPER

Fordham has established a partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to create a new study abroad program.

The decision, however, has been met with a variety of controversy. While some students are interested in an opportunity to study in Jerusalem, others have condemned Fordham’s decision. The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham released a statement that they “stand alongside [their] allies in direct opposition and disgust to this blatant endorsement of the apartheid & genocidal state of Israel.” SJP has been involved in various struggles for club recognition with the university, and their denial of club status at Fordham, resulted in a lawsuit. Moreover, the club has also stated that they urge Fordham to “reinstate Fordham SJP, promote Palestinian advocacy, promote awareness of the occupation and apartheid and cut ties with Israel.”

The Department of Jewish

In the past couple of weeks, the Fordham Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) has been discussing the possibility of increasing the student activity fees. For this increase to be put into action, a referendum must be sent out to the student body and at least 15% of the community needs to say yes in a simple majority from the students surveyed.

Executive President of USG Santiago Vidal, FCRH ’24, Vice President of Finance and Budget of USG Eron Maltzman, FCRH ’25, and Vice Chair of Finance and Budget of USG Lucas Hjertberg, FCRH ’26, shared

By SOFIA DONOHUE their thoughts and reasoning DIGITAL PRODUCER behind the increase.

Vidal explained that the activity fees are the only fees that can be increased solely with a vote from the student body.

This referendum is started by USG because USG is the sole organizer and manager of all of the funds from the activity fees.

“Just to put it into context,

SEE SJP, PAGE 3

SEE USG, PAGE 4

STAFF WRITER

March 22, 2023

TheFordhamRam.com

STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Fordham’s Office of Multicultral Affairs hosted a Women’s History Month Luncheon on March 2, 2023.

Fordham Community Celebrates Women’s History Month Across Campuses

By EMMA KIM NEWS EDITOR

Fordham celebrated Women’s History Month this March in different ways across the university.

Women’s History Month began in Santa Rosa, California, where the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women planned a

Women’s History Week. From there, the movement spread across the country.

In February 1980, after the National Women’s History Project lobbied for national recognition, President Jimmy Carter made the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week. This continued until March of 1987 when Congress

passed additional legislation requesting that the president proclaim March as Women’s History Month. Now, since 1995, presidents have issued annual proclamations designating March as Women’s History Month.

Before Women’s History Month, the United Nations SEE WOMEN, PAGE 4

Resident Assistant Union Passes After Vote

By ISABEL DANZIS EDITOR IN CHIEF

COURTESY OF WEST WING

On March 7, West Wing went to hear Majora Carter speak about being a better community partner.

Fordham’s West Wing Collaborates with Community Activist Majora Carter

By TASNIMAH RAHMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The West Wing went to The Boogie Down Grind Cafe on March 7 to sit with author, urban revitalization strategist, MacArthur Fellow, Peabody

Award-winning broadcaster and community activist Majora Carter.

The West Wing is an Integrated Learning Community (ILC) of Ignatian Leadership and Civic Service for sophomores and juniors of Fordham College at Rose Hill and the Gabelli

School of Business. Carter is the co-owner of the Boogie Down Grind located in Hunts Point, and she spoke to West Wing members on how to be efficient community partners.

Carter authored the famous SEE WEST WING, PAGE 5

Fordham Resident Assistants (RAs) voted 47-19 to ratify the Fordham Resident Assistants Union (FRA) in a formal vote with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on March 21. The vote effectively forces the university to recognize the union following the university’s refusal to acknowledge the group in February.

“We are extremely excited to have won our union today!

We couldn’t without the support of our fellow RAs and OPEIU Local 153. After winning our union 47 to 19, we

are prepared to begin the bargaining process in hopes of gaining better compensation, more protections and an effective line of communication,” said Sophia Ghelardini, FCRH ’25, an RA, in a press release.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Fordham RAs to our union family,” said Local 153 union organizer Scott Williams in the same press release. “These 96 workers will join over 200 OPEIU members at Fordham, building union power for all workers and students at Fordham. We can’t wait to continue supporting their leadership and working to win a transformative contract.”

In response to the vote, Bob

SEE VOTE, PAGE 5

in this issue

News

Page 3

Opinion

Page 8

Fordham Lifts Vaccine Requirement on All Campuses

On the Scarcity of Passion & the Need to Share It

Culture Page 17

Sports

Diversity Wins at the 95th Academy Awards

Baseball Takes Three Out of Last Five Games

Page 24

NEWS

Page 2

PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS March 9 O’Hare Hall 11:50 p.m.

On Thursday, a student reported the theft of a sweatshirt from the laundry room in O’Hare Hall. A review of the video showed that another student had mistakenly removed the sweatshirt.

March 12 Lombardi Fitness Center 11:00 a.m.

On Sunday, the Lombardi Center guard reported a water leak from the temporary restrooms in the rear of the Rose Hill Gym. The supervisor and facilities responded and turned off the water supply.

The supervisor contacted Call Ahead Luxury Trailers.

March 12 Arthur II 7:05 p.m.

On Sunday, the security officer assigned to Arthur II reported a smoke alarm going off. The FDNY responded and the alarm panel was reset.

March 16 Larkin Hall 1:04 p.m.

On Thursday, there was a smoke condition in Larkin Hall. The supervisor responded. The investigation revealed a faulty exhaust fan was the cause of the smoke condition.

The fan was replaced.

March 18 McShane Campus Center 6:45 p.m.

On Saturday, a fire alarm went off in the McShane Campus Center. The supervisor and FDNY responded. The investigation revealed the alarm was activated by dust from an ongoing construction project. The supervisor reset the alarm panel.

Follow us on Instagram! @thefordhamram If you have an event you’d like to be featured, email us: fordhamramnews@gmail.com

March 22, 2023

Gaelic Society Hosts Celebratory Documentary Screening

By MICHELA FAHY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

By ALEXANDRA RAPP CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Wednesday, March 8, Fordham’s Gaelic Society hosted a screening of the documentary “How to Defuse a Bomb: The Project Children Story.” The film is a celebration of the decadeslong work of the Project Children Charity and one of its founding members, Denis Mulcahy. The film shows decades of footage, chronicling the violence in Northern Ireland through the Clinton administration’s peace talks and into the work Project Children Charity does today.

Mulcahy, the grown children who participated in The Project Children Charity over the decades and Fordham community members were present at the screening. Fordham’s Gaelic Society and the Aisling Center worked to put together the event, and the turnout by Fordham’s wider community and students aimed to create an educational experience.

The documentary details the extraordinary story of how NYPD bomb-disposal expert, Denis Mulcahy, played an important role in helping defuse the decades-old Troubles in Northern Ireland by bringing vulnerable children to America for a summer of peace. Narrated

by Liam Neeson and with contributions from former President Bill Clinton, the film provides a close look into the role The Project Children Charity played in saving the lives of young children in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and bringing Northern Ireland towards peace through raising awareness in the United States.

Fordham Gaelic Society’s President, Julia Quinn, GSB ’24, explained that “in 1975, Denis founded Project Children to help young Catholic and Protestant children travel to the U.S. for a summer holiday respite from the everyday violence and strife of their homeland. Throughout the past 40 years, more than 23,000 individuals have been helped and continue to be helped in the internship program. The intern program is both cross community and cross border.”

In that first summer, they brought six children from Northern Ireland, half Protestant and half

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

The screening, hosted by the Gaelic Society, included a special appearance from NYPD bomb-disposal expert, Denis Mulcahy.

Catholic, for six weeks to Greenwood Lake, NY — where Mulcahy, his brother, and other members of the Gaelic Cultural Society which went on to become The Project Children Charity.

The project initially drew attention for the controversial choice of including both Protestant and Catholic children, but they were adamant of the importance of caring for children beyond their religious identities. At the time, Northern Ireland, Belfast in particular, was wrought with violence, as members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British Military Services turned Northern Ireland into an active war zone. Children were being exposed to often deadly violence.

The charity set out to keep children safe, even if for only a summer, and to show children of Protestant and Catholic backgrounds that they could live and even like one another. The film features the stories of children, from the first two boys who came in the summer of 1975 to the young man who lost his life several years after his return from his summer in the United States.

“Other universities have shown a screening of this documentary, such as NYU, and Mulcahy attends all of them. Gaelic Society was extremely honored to hear that both Denis and the Aisling Center wanted Fordham to host a

screening of this monumental documentary. Denis Mulcahy has received many accolades for his vigorous work in assisting the peace process in Northern Ireland, was twice nominated for the very prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for all his work for the children of Northern Ireland and was runner up to the First President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa,” said Quinn.

The event aimed to be an opportunity for students and community members to learn and engage with, oftentimes their own family’s, history in Northern Ireland

and to meet Mulcahy. “[The Gaelic Society] hope[s] that students, alum, faculty and anyone that attends understands the struggles of Northern Ireland, and how far individuals have come since then. It is important to remember our ancestors and the challenges they endured for the future generations,” said Quinn.

By the end of the documentary, many members of the audience were tearing up.

“It’s better not to curse the darkness and to just light the candle,” said a priest, who was a member of the audience.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

The documentary shown celebrated the work of The Project Children Charity.

This Week at Fordham Thursday March 23

Friday March 24

Saurday March 25

Sunday March 26

Monday March 27

Creativity in Marketing Lecture

TOP: One Act Showcase

Softball vs.

St. Bonaventure

Fordham Baseball vs. Seton Hall

U.S. Latinx Catholicism Lecture

McNally Amphitheatre 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Keating Third 6 p.m.

Bahoshy Field 12 p.m.

Houlihan Park 1 p.m.

Duane Library 6-7:30 p.m.

Fordham’s Center for Positive Marketing is hosting a conference with the ANA Educational Foundation and Disney. The conference will discuss how marketing brands appeal to consumers emotions.

Come watch the Fordham Theatrical Outreach Program’s One Act Showcase in Keating Third. Admission is free and there will be several one-act performances.

Cheer on Women’s Softball this Saturday as they face off against Saint Bonaventure University. Come show support for the Rams as they take on their second home game of the season!

Support the Men’s Baseball team this Sunday as they compete against Seton Hall University. Come cheer them on in this competetive A-10 game.

Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education is hosting a lecture featuring Christie de la Gandra.

The lecture will discuss the U.S. Hispanic-Catholic experience.

NEWS Controversy Arises From New Study Abroad Partnership

March 22, 2023

FROM SJP, PAGE 1

Studies did not give their opinion on the recent opposition to the program. However, they did state that “Fordham’s new partnership with the Hebrew University, one of the Middle East’s most important universities, gives Fordham students the opportunity to study in Jerusalem, a city with a rich multicultural and multireligious history spanning millennia, from biblical times, through the Roman period and the rise of Christianity, Islamicate empires, British mandatory rule and up to today.” According to the department, the program aims to help give Fordham students the opportunity to explore an ancient area of the world. As of this article’s publication, it seems that the program will continue to run as planned.

SJP chapter claims that they have “built a strong base within the university who share similar views surrounding solidarity and

Page 3

advocacy for Palestinian liberation, and as such [they] will not miss an instance in which Fordham continues to boast its Zionist position.”

Moreover, “the Jewish Studies Department recognizes that this trip to occupied Palestine directly impacts the Palestinians on campus & their families within the diaspora and apartheid.” One major issue that SJP points out would be that “many students in Fordham are unable to participate in this trip solely due to their identity as Arab, Palestinian or Muslim as Israel refuses to allow such people in the country.” The organization is referring to the historical precedent of restrictions against Palestinian Arabs and Muslims’ ability to enter Israel set by Israeli immigration control. With this, SJP said they wish for the Department of Jewish Studies to recognize “the heinous crimes” of Israel and that they must separate the difference between Judaism and Zionism. With this, Fordham SJP asks for the depart-

ment to cancel this trip for the sake of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students on campus who would be unable to participate in such a program and to boycott the State of Israel.

Fordham SJP has specifically stated that they do not bear any ill will towards the university and simply wish to ​​ promote discussions surrounding the liberation of all peoples globally. The club also stated that more work has to be done to “educate others about the colonial history of Zionism.” As of now, Fordham SJP “does not feel that Fordham listens to the needs of Palestinians at the current moment, since Fordham does much to promote events surrounding discussions of diversity and inclusion, but does little in enacting policies and making changes to support diversity and inclusion on campus.” In the end, Fordham SJP has specifically stated that they

support peace, stand in firm support of the decolonial movement and wish to return all lands to Palestinians. Furthermore, SJP said that Palestine affirms the rights of all people, regardless of their ethnicity and hopes for peace between the Palestinian and Jewish people to be established, as it had been for centuries prior to the formation of Israel.

Fordham’s SJP chapter has struggled to gain club status at the university. The club’s proposal “received backlash solely from administration” and was vetoed by Keith Eldredge, the dean of students at Fordham College Lincoln Center. Additionally, Jeffrey Gray, the senior vice president for student affairs at Lincoln Center, also supported the veto by Eldrige, stating that the club would be “too polarizing,” and that there had been cases of SJP chapters disrupting various college campuses throughout the country.

According to additional statements provided by Fordham’s SJP chapter, neither deans were able to provide such a case. As a result, the club felt “surprised, offended, and alienated as their university refused to affirm their identity and their right to organize,” ultimately resulting in a lawsuit. The timeline of these events can be found on the SJP chapter's Instagram Linktree.

Students for Justice in Palestine continues to remain an unofficial club at Fordham University. Although the organization won the trial case, Fordham appealed on the technicality on the basis that the prior students had graduated, and therefore, there was no harm.

Currently, the SJP has stated that efforts are being made to instate SJP as an official club at Fordham, but they are not open to share their specific plans yet. However, SJP is asking Fordham to “communicate with [the chapter] and have an open conversation” so that an agreement can be settled.

Fordham Lifts Vaccine Requirement on All Campuses

By ISABEL DANZIS EDITOR IN CHIEF

President Tania Tetlow sent an email to the Fordham community on March 20 announcing that the university will lift COVID-19 vaccination requirements for members of the Fordham community and visitors to campus starting on May 15, 2023. Despite the changes to the policy, the university will continue to distribute the vaccination on campus.

In the email, Tetlow wrote: “Vaccinations and boosters will continue to be strongly recommended because they remain very effective in protecting each of us individually from serious illness and death. Vaccines will no longer be required, however, because new variants increasingly have evaded the vaccine’s initially strong ability to prevent transmission of the disease. What was once a critical way to protect the most vulnerable in our

community has become more of an individual choice about safety, one we urge you to take seriously.”

However, the university reserves the right to revisit the policy and its decision if the state of the COVID-19 virus changes.

“Long before the fall semester begins, we will take a look at all other policies in consultation with the data and our community, and will announce any changes with plenty of notice.

Until then, all classroom and other policies remain in effect.”

May 15 also marks the end of the university’'s usage of VitalCheck to check vaccination status and to report COVID-19 cases. The university has used the system since the fall 2020 semester.

The announcement has been met with conflicting opinions from the Fordham community.

“I think we are where we are because of the vaccine mandate, we are in a good place because of it. That should tell us to con-

tinue on this path instead of deviating. Also, why would the university revoke a policy that is not costing them anything and only keeping people safe,” said Claire Bickel, FCRH ’24.

Others think lifting the vaccine requirement is the right direction for the university.

“I am glad to hear that Fordham is following in-suit with neighboring universities in NYC [...] by removing their vaccine mandate to follow these other vaccine mandate-free schools. I think this is best for our school as people who were once previously barred from campus due to their lack of vaccine, could now re-join us back in our community."

He added that "hopefully we could put the pandemic, and the restrictions [...] that followed, behind us, and look forward to more prosperous times as Rams!” said Zachary Visconti, GSB ’25.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Fordham will no longer require COVID-19 vaccines for campus entry.

USG Discusses Public Concerns and New Campaigning Systems

By SOFIA SEMPER STAFF WRITER

On Thursday, March 9, the Fordham Rose Hill Student Government (USG) met to discuss public concerns and new campaigning systems.

The Residence Hall Association (RHA) stated that their bingo night was a big success and they had a large turnout. They said that, because of the success of this event, they will probably do another one next year as well.

Lastly, the RHA is currently planning their formal for this year.

Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, Brianna AlOmoush, FCRH ’24, presented a budget request at the meeting. She explained that for Bronx Appreciation Week, the Diversity and Action Committee (DAC) ordered about 72 shirts for the event, but they do not think that that is enough so they are

requesting more money to purchase more. Vice President of Budget Committee Eron Maltzman, GSB ’25, suggested that DAC collaborate with another club or committee for this event, because DAC has already used a lot of their funding for the semester.

Executive President Santiago Vidal, FCRH ’24, reported that a student reached out to him about starting a GoFundMe for the people in Ukraine. Vidal explained that there is a cap on how much money a club can fundraise and that falls under the responsibility of Campus Ministry rather than USG. Vidal reintroduced the possibility of USG candidates running together on slates. He clarified that candidates would have the option to run individually or on slates and that voters can choose to vote for the slate as a whole or for individual candidates in the slate. Vidal stated that the winners would not

be determined by the number of slate votes but by the number of individual votes.

He explained that there are many colleges that have begun using the slate campaigning system, such as Boston College and UC Berkeley, and they have found it to make the campaigning system more efficient.

Vice President of Fordham College Rose Hill, Emma Balint, FCRH ’24, brought up the concern that this new style of campaigning may be confusing for students voting. Vice President of Student Life, Brian Inguanti, FCRH ’24, stated that he is not a fan of the slate campaigning system and that he fears that the incumbents will form a single slate, excluding any potentially new members.

Senator Sean Power, FCRH ’24, was elected as Senator of the Month.

Balint stated that she is

continuing her work with the deans about revising the core curriculum and will provide

updates to United Student Government as the situation progresses.

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

USG discussed the idea of a new campaigning system for USG elections.

NEWS

Page 4

March 22, 2023

USG Discusses Increase in Student Activity Fees FROM USG, PAGE 1

we have every year around $1.2 million of activity fees of which 30% of those funds is allocated to the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) for things like spring weekend or senior week events or orientation, $100,000 goes to the Campus Activities Board (CAB) to organize all of the events that they do throughout the year and the rest is distributed between block funded clubs and event funded clubs,” said Vidal.

Hjertberg explained that due to inflation and the large number of new clubs that have been created over the past few years, they need to raise their budget by increasing activity fees to account for those changes. Maltzman also stated that, overall, the amount of money that clubs are requesting is much greater than the amount of money that the budget committee is able to

currently allocate.

Vidal stated that club membership has increased about 37% over the last four years from data of the operations packets. That increase requires a change in the budget. Vidal explained that university clubs requested a total of $800,000 from the budget committee but USG only had $500,000 available and a big part of it already goes to club sports and block funded clubs, making the pool of available funds even less.

Both Maltzman and Hjertberg reiterated the fact that clubs have not been able to receive the money that they have been requesting properly due to lack of available funds. They explained that during the 2022 Budget Day where clubs were receiving their allocated budget, the committee realized that they did not have enough money to give to every club

so they decided to give every club an equal $500 budget.

Maltzman stated that clubs were rightfully upset with the small budget that they received but that the activity fees referendum will fix this budget issue.

Vidal explained that the increase will benefit the student body because of the greater funds that will be available to clubs, the increase in the amount of rollover that clubs will have every year and it will greatly benefit CAB and events like orientation or senior week.

He also said that he hopes the activity fees increase will help clubs that are competing at national levels like Model UN, Debate, Mock Trial, club sports, etc. be able to compete without any constraints.

“Our main goal is to close the gap between the amount of clubs that are requesting very good appeals without any type of issues

and the lack of funding that we have to allocate to every single budget request that we are getting. That is the main goal.

To close that gap. Once we close that gap, everything else comes as a consequence,” explained Vidal.

Hjertberg and Maltzman both encourage students who are not currently in any clubs to join. They said that clubs are a great way for building relationships and to contribute to the Fordham community.

They explained that the entire USG board seems to be on board with the increase and they hope that the student body will also see the need for the increase.

Sophia Bere, FCRH ’26, gave her opinion on the possible increase. “I think it’s a bit unfair for people who are not in clubs to have to pay for it but they also have the choice to be in clubs too.” She explained that she is

sure that the increase would help the clubs but there is also the matter of people who are not in clubs also having to pay the increase.

Model UN President Alex Yankovsky, FCRH ’24, said that he is completely in favor of the activity fees referendum and increase. Yankovsky said that, as a club leader, he wants to be able to provide as many opportunities to club members as possible but, with the current budget that clubs receive, he feels that he is unable to do that.

He explained that he has not been able to bring all of his club members to events because they have not had the funding.

“Fordham should strive to increase opportunities every year,” Yankovsky said.

He said he feels that an increase in activity fees will bring more opportunities to the Fordham community.

Fordham Community Celebrates Women’s History Month Across Campuses FROM WOMEN, PAGE 1

recognized International Women’s Day in 1977, which emerged from the labor movements in the early 1900s.

Fordham’s Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) celebrated the month at both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Sayema Abedin, Lincoln Center Graduate Intern at OMA, oversaw the Women’s History Committee.

“We have a total of 10 events planned for Women’s Herstory Month,” said Abedin. “We have 5 more events planned after Spring Break: movie night in RH, movie night in LC, Love Letter Tabling in RH, [Women’s History Month] Celebration in RH and [Women’s History Month] Celebration in LC. All of the dates and locations can

be found in our calendars around campus, or on our Instagram @FordhamWHM.” Abedin emphasized that it is important to celebrate Women’s History Month to recognize and highlight the significant contributions women throughout history and the present day have made that are constantly overlooked.

“One of our main themes this month is to highlight forgotten women in history, so that we can honor their work and remember their contributions,” said Abedin.

“In our kickoff luncheon on both campuses, we have awarded 24 female-identified student leaders, faculty and staff at Fordham to show our appreciation for all of their hard work.”

Abedin hopes that students are able to use what they learned

from OMA’s programming for Women’s History Month and be able to use it throughout every month.

Abedin added, “I hope that students have learned a new name or two of forgotten women in history.”

In addition to OMA’s programming, Fordham’s chapter of the Women’s Network is also celebrating the month.

Mia Peros, FCRH ’24, Fordham’s chapter president, explained that Women’s Network aims at “redefining ambition and creating a space for marginalized groups and those who are usually underrepresented in the workforce to have the resources, community and all the possible ability and support that [they] can give towards professional development and finding a career.”

“We accept anyone who does not identify as a man,” said Peros. “We are really dedicated to uplifting those who are underrepresented in the workforce.”

Peros explained the Women’s Network has 140 chapters across the country, and it was founded in 2017 in Syracuse by a student who wanted to learn more about women in business and support others.

For Women’s History Month, Peros said that the group will host an outing into Manhattan towards the end of the month.

Peros explained that there is a lot of professional development and more serious topics covered during the month, so the outing will focus more on bonding for the group.

“We are kind of just doing a little

bonding trip to kind of appreciate each other,” said Peros. “We are going to Central Park. We are going to paint and have a picnic, so we are super excited about that.”

Peros added that she hopes that students will realize that no matter their identity that their voice is never worth less in a professional setting.

“You deserve to be heard. You deserve to be listened to and respected in the professional sphere.

Just because barriers have been put up in the past, it does not mean that you cannot break them,” said Peros.

Overall, Peros said that the Women’s Network has many resources, such as interview and resume workshops for students to attend, but in addition, they offer community and support.

Crain’s New York Business List Honors Fordham Alumna

By GRACE GALBREATH ASST. NEWS EDITOR

On Feb. 21, Crain’s New York Business published a list of Notable Black Leaders. This year’s list honors Fordham alumna, Marjorie Parker, FCRH ’90.

Crain’s list highlights Black individuals whose work has improved the quality of life of New York City residents. Honorees are professionals in all industries, from medicine to finance.

Crain chooses the individuals that are honored on the list by considering past professional accomplishments.

Parker is the current president and chief executive officer of JobsFirstNYC, a nonprofit that connects young adults to economic opportunities. The nonprofit works as an intermediary between individuals and professional organizations.

First founded in 2006, JobsFirstNYC is specifically targeted towards individuals in the 18-24 age range. Parker first became involved with the organization in 2014 as the

deputy executive director. In 2017, Parker was named president and CEO. Parker said, “JobsFirstNYC was created to respond to the needs of out-of-school and outof-work young adults. It was created to find, develop and advance solutions to produce better outcomes for both young people and the communities they live in. If things get better for them, things get better for their communities.”

Under Parker’s leadership, JobsFirstNYC has grown. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, JobsFirstNYC reported that more than 1,944 young adults used their services.

JobsFirstNYC also established several new partnerships in the year, including one with The New York City Deputy Mayor’s Office of Strategic Initiatives.

JobsFirstNYC works to understand all communities across New York City that young people live in, researching the infrastructure of those communities. Parker said that when considering a community, the organization examines employment rates, education, services offered and average income.

The organization uses this information to mediate conversations with employers.

“We try to have frank conversations with employers about expectations and managing generational differences between workers in the same workplace,” said Parker.

Parker said she is grateful to receive the honor from Crain’s New York Business. In acknowledgement of all the awards that she has received, she said, “I attach it to the work that I do. I see it as a recognition of the work that we do here at JobsFirstNYC. I don’t look at it as a personal accomplishment.”

Parker also spoke fondly of her time at Fordham. Reminiscing on the decision process, Parker said, “Fordham felt like a place where I would be safe, I would learn and I would make new friends.”

Parker also mentioned the launching of a multicultural club as an important moment during her time at Fordham.

“I met all of these people that I had never met before. It was a really great and dynam-

ic experience. Meeting people from Africa, Saudi Arabia and the Caribbean. Even my roommate was from Ireland,” said Parker.

Parker also highlighted leadership opportunities available at Fordham as important to her growth.

Parker said, “It really shaped my thinking around diversity and religion. There were many opportunities for leadership… I do feel as if my time spent there was instrumental to my [future] leadership and my understanding of how to engage with people who have different cultural upbringings.”

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Marjorie Parker graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1990.

NEWS

March 22, 2023

Page 5

Fordham’s West Wing Collaborates with Community Activist Majora Carter FROM WEST WING, PAGE 1

“Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One,” published in 2022. Robert J Parmach, Ph.D., and Robert J Hume, Ph.D., for the West Wing assigned this book to study concepts relating to public policy, Ignatian mission leadership and civic engagement.

Megha Verghese, GSB ’25, was the first to suggest this book to West Wing Leadership to study the book and meet the author, and Residential Assistant Teshley Kamen, FCRH ’24, brought it to fruition.

Hume, associate dean of the faculty of arts and sciences and political science professor, talked about the outcomes reflecting Carter's story of being invested and confident in one's ability to contribute to community engagement.

“In West Wing, we try to teach students how to achieve meaningful social change at the local level, and Majora Carter's work is such a great example of this,” said Hume.

“We were very grateful that Ms. Carter was willing to meet with our students and share her experiences developing the Hunt's Point community,” said Hume. “She is such an inspiration, and the cafe she established, the Boogie Down Grind, is a great example of what can be accomplished when you invest in the community.”

The trip aimed to teach members of The West Wing that what is learned in school can be implemented in one's community.

“As a business student, it was inspiring to see Majora Carter utilize the ideas we learn in school to create wealth within the Bronx community. Her book taught me that creating projects that support the economy or the environment are not mutually exclusive tasks,” said Verghese.

Students sat down with Carter, to have a conversation and understand her drive to do urban revitalization work.

“During the lively conversation over coffee and homemade sandwiches, Majora Carter spoke about central themes in

her book as well as probed the students’ questions about how best to be an ally for accompaniment and urban revitalization efforts. Carter also spoke eloquently about how her faith animates her daily life and serves as a bedrock for the often challenging and even frustrating, important work she does,” said Parmach.

Hume said he hopes students can “come away with a better understanding of how people can change their communities when they choose to stay in them and build careers there. The Boogie Down Grind is an exciting example of what can be done.”

Carter said working from faith reflects West Wing principles to use Ignatian tradition to lead as a motive to effect change within Fordham and the world.

“This event inspired me to reevaluate how I perceive my hometown community. Rather than starting a brand new life in New York City where everything appears fresh and glamorous, I should foster

efforts into my home town and help produce change in the community that raised me,” said Dylan Ayer, FCRH ’25.

Carter also spoke about how community-engaging work leads to criticism and she spoke about how to stay resilient.

“One of the questions asked to Ms. Carter was how she responds to backlash from members within her community, who are often misinformed or misconstrue Ms. Carter’s efforts to help the community,” said Sejal Getchell, FCRH ’25.

“Ms. Carter always tries to reach out and clear up confusion or misunderstanding, but she has also come to realize that some people are unwilling to change their minds, and they're not worth energy that could be devoted elsewhere,” said Getchell. “Ms. Carter takes her lows in strides, doesn’t win every battle, and is still underlooked despite all she has accomplished, yet she doesn’t let negative experiences deter her from moving forward and giving her all to her community.”

Getchell also said that Carter

mentioned that the Bronx should be treated as a place to improve not leave.

“Majora Carter is motivated by her community and the prospect of improving conditions so that members of the community can be proud of their environment, and proud of being from the Bronx,” said Getchell.

“She opposes the idea that the Bronx is a place to get out of. Ms. Carter mentioned a mentality of escaping a lower-income community, often through educational attainment and moving to nicer neighborhoods with cute coffee shops,” said Getchell. “This type of mentality stigmatizes the Bronx from both the inside and outside.”

“I would encourage any Fordham students to venture down to Hunts Point and visit the cafe. The Bronx community extends beyond the borders of just Arthur Ave. The Boogie Down Grind cafe feels like a hidden gem. It’s a cozy, exciting space that easily draws Bronx residents in,” said Getchell.

IPED Celebrates 25 Years of Partnership with Catholic Relief Services

By CHRISTINA LJULJIC CONTRIBUTING WRITER

International Political Economy (IPED), a graduate program at Fordham University, is celebrating 25 years of partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS). IPED is focused on international economic relations and global development, and has partnered with organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, which is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic Community in the United States.

Henry Schwalenberg is a professor in the economics department at Fordham University and is the director of the IPED graduate program. He teaches courses on foreign aid, project assessment and international economics. He said IPED is one of the smaller programs at Fordham, but it is competitive and selective.

About 40% of the students in the program work in the pri-

vate sector, with CRS being the second largest employer for students who graduate.

“It’s about using the tools of political and economic analysis to look at the international economy and issues of development,” said Schwalenberg. Graduate students can then use these tools to help with issues such as international poverty and food insecurity.

“25 years ago, I made a phone call to Catholic Relief Services and I said we’d like to have more practical field experience for these students so then they can then get a better start in this field,” said Schwalenberg.

He said the partnership began with two of the IPED students going to Zimbabwe for a semester.

“After that, it expanded to a number of countries. Now we have sent students to 27 countries around the world,” Schwalenberg said.

Students who are a part of IPED and work for Catholic Relief Services get to work on various

pressing world issues. Some work to combat food insecurity, while others work on malaria and Ebola. Over 80 students have found jobs through this partnership.

The theme of the 25 year celebration is “forming leaders for global development.” People who wish to partake in this initiative have the opportunity to work with some of the world’s most important issues, especially in countries that have limited resources. Some of the countries include Somalia, Afghanistan and Timor. The work can range from helping kids receive a better education, to ensuring communities have access to healthy food.

“A future plan for us is definitely to keep doing this, because it provides a wonderful opportunity for students who come,” said Schwalenberg. He also touched on the undergraduate CRS club, where members of the club ad-

vocate for global poverty around the company. It started a couple years ago, and Schwalenberg said he hopes it can raise awareness about international conflicts and the IPED program itself.

“CRS does a really good job at exploring faith and action,” said Alexandra Tamsi, FCRH ’24. She is a member of the club and said she sees the benefits of the IPED program, and their partnership with CRS. “The world needs talented people, and there’s a lot of trouble in the world right now and we need to solve some of these problems,” said Sean Callahan, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services. IPED aims to help CRS come in contact with these individuals.

Callahan said the partnership is natural given all the things the IPED program and CRS have in common. He said there is a shared belief in faith and the importance of being

here to make a difference.

“The poor need excellence, they need the best people out there,” said Callahan. He said that the IPED program is a crucial factor in giving talented people the opportunity to help others in need.

“They’re hungry and they’re willing to learn,” said Callahan.

He said it is important to be bold if you want to help people, and think beyond what you think is possible.

Matthew McGarry is a graduate of the IPED program, and is currently the Senior Director at Catholic Relief Services. He said that he had come into Fordham with a cloud of good intentions.

“While good intentions are nice, and they’re important, it’s not enough. It’s not even close to enough,” said McGarry. He stressed that being compassionate and wanting to do good work will help change the world, even if it is done “drop by drop.”

Resident Assistant Union Passes After Vote FROM VOTE, PAGE 1

Howe, assistant vice president for communication and special advisor to the president, said: “The University accepts the results of the vote. We look forward to negotiating a mutually beneficial contract with the resident assistants and their union representatives.”

The FRA will represent the interests of 96 Resident Assistants in Fordham’s Rose Hill campus under the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 153 (OPEIU-153). FRA will be the third union to engage in major action, the other two being the Fordham Faculty Union and the Graduate Student Workers union.

FRA sought voluntary recognition from the university on Feb. 1 by delivering a petition to President Tania Tetlow. The university told the union that

they would not recognize the union voluntarily, stating: “First, until we have more clarity on whether such a union would include only Rose Hill resident assistants, we do not yet know whether a majority of potential members signed your letter. Second, we would like to ensure that those voting have full information about the processes, dues and rules of a union before voting.”

Earlier this month, the FRA filed anti-labor charges against university administration, accusing the institution of violating labor laws set forth by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Specifically, the charges set forth relate to an email sent by Jeffrey L. Gray, senior vice president for Student Affairs, to resident assistants in anticipation of the March 21 vote. The union claims that statements made in the email in-

fringed upon the union’s ability to organize, especially since the NLRA prohibits employers from interfering with their employees’ rights.

“It’s threatening,” said SRA Peter Wolff, FCRH ’23, describing Gray’s email. “The way it comes off, it interferes with our right to organize.” The organizing members pointed to specific statements made in the email that they felt were especially misleading. The first of these statements regarded union dues.

In response, Howe claimed that the email in question was “a statement of the labor law that binds us, an explanation of our inability to immediately respond to the issues raised in the RAs’ petition.”

After the March 21 vote, the university will be forced to recognize the union and will enter negotiations with organizers.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

The Resident Assistant Union passed after a successful vote of 47-19 on March 21.

NEWS

Page 6

March 22, 2023

Junior Makes Breakthrough in Chemical Research

By ALICE GAALSWYK STAFF WRITER

Clara Victorio, FCRH ’24, is majoring in chemistry and minoring in math, and has been conducting research centered around protein-protein interactions (PPIs). PPIs are fundamental in a lot of biological processes, and their malfunctioning can lead to certain diseases, like neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

In order to study these interactions, molecules called peptides have to cross the cell membrane, which poses an issue because the peptide has a polar surface, which does not interact well with the hydrophobic cell membrane. “It’s kind of like how oil and water don’t mix,” said Victorio.

To remedy this, Victorio has been working to understand how the structure of the peptides themselves affects their cell permeability. Up until recently, Victorio’s main work has revolved around isolating the structural changes in the peptides without changing the underlying sequence of the peptides to see if 3D structure is the variable that affects per-

meability. However, Victorio has recently made a breakthrough in her research that has allowed her to shift her work into a new area.

After testing several approaches, Victorio discovered two different oxidation methods that provided access to different peptide structures. Victorio had been using a previously established method that was supposed to result in two cysteines coming together to form an intramolecular disulfide bond, which is when one peptide reacts with itself.

“But instead, what I found was that it took two copies of peptides and connected them to each other to form what I’m calling a peptide dimer… and that was completely unexpected because I was just trying to form the intramolecular species,” Victorio said.

This species that Victorio unintentionally formed proved to be beneficial for her project because it provided a third structure that she could use to test the cell permeability with. This third structure was one of the main synthetic achievements of Victorio’s research thus far.

After this synthesis stage, Vic-

torio has now progressed to a new phase of her research.

Working with the biology department and her advisor, Dr. Nicholas Sawyer, Victorio has been able to incubate mammalian cells with these different peptide forms, and then use a technique called flow cytometry to compare the cell permeability of each of these forms.

“This directly addresses my main question of ‘how does peptide structure affect cell permeability?’ because depending on the peptide form that the cells are treated with, if the peptide structure is more permeable, then the cells will be able to take in more amounts of that peptide,” Victorio said.

To test this, Victorio has attached a fluorescent tag to the peptides so that the cells that had peptides in them would be fluorescently labeled so that she could measure the fluorescence intensity, which provides insight into the relative cell permeability of each peptide form.

Before this development, Victorio’s work in the lab revolved mostly around the chemical synthesis of these peptide structures, but now, she has had to learn more

about cell culture and the basics of flow cytometry, so her experiments in the lab have been looking very different from her previous work. “Along with that shift, some of the work that I’m hoping to do also is more focused on cells, specifically whether the disulfide bonds can be broken inside the cells, not just in a test tube… so it’s kind of a shift from the more synthetic side of things to more cell-based work,” Victorio said.

With the progress that she has made, Victorio can now see her project branching into two important areas of science: one involving chemical synthesis and the other that is more related to its application in living systems like cells.

On the synthetic side, Victorio has so far implemented one crosslink, but she says that there is no reason why they need to stop at one; she notes that previous research has shown that crosslinks can be introduced to stabilize a helical structure in peptides, which are helpful in allowing the peptide to inhibit PPIs. “If we combine the benefits of the crosslink that I’ve been researching… and combine it with

a different crosslink that helps the peptide bind to its target within the cell, then that can create a really effective tool, not only for research but for other practical applications down the line.”

Victorio said she hopes that this is one area that her project can continue to delve into. For the other side, Victorio said she thinks that now they can not only look at whether the peptide can cross the cell membrane, but also how it functions within the cell itself. The peptide that Victorio has been studying was designed to inhibit the interaction between the proteins p53 and Mdm2, which is important in cell proliferation and tumor growth.

“So ideally, if this peptide can inhibit this interaction, then we should notice that the p53 levels are restored, and therefore able to continue with their programmed cell death and not grow uncontrollably, like we see in most cancers.”

Victorio has also had some personal lessons throughout this process. “I’ve had to learn to be persistent despite reactions that don’t work as intended… and basically just having to adapt to the unexpected.”

Student Life Council Discusses Increase in Student Fees

By ISABEL DANZIS EDITOR IN CHIEF

Members of the Fordham community gathered on March 8 in the monthly Student Life Council (SLC) meeting to discuss issues within the Fordham community. Representatives from various student organizations, academic institutions and university administration were present.

The meeting focused on United Student Government’s (USG) proposal for a referendum to increase the current Student Activities Fee, which is currently $135. The fee, which every student pays, provides funding for clubs and the Office of Student Involvement (OSI). The referendum would increase that fee by $95 per student. Representatives from USG claimed that clubs are requesting more and more money each year, and the USG budget committee does not receive enough funds to satisfy everyone.

According to the presentation in the SLC, in the past budget period, clubs requested $921,000. After taking out money reserved for block-funded clubs and the Campus Activities Board (CAB), there was only $519,000 left to distribute.

The representatives stated that the increased money needed for clubs comes from inflation, an increased number of clubs and that clubs are using more of their allocated funds.

The representatives also addressed common concerns from students about the increased price. Some people have raised the concern that not all students are involved in clubs. USG said that they encourage students to join clubs but even students who are not directly involved in

clubs still benefit from things like Spring Weekend or club tabling events.

Executive President of USG Santiago Vidal, FCRH ’24, stated that there was a tabling event earlier in the week to inform students about the referendum. Vidal said that the USG representative at the table did not hear any complaints from students about the increase.

Next, the meeting followed up on concerns about the chaperone and excused absence policy for clubs that must travel. A representative from OSI stated that there had been no change to the chaperone policy.

Dean of Students Christopher Rodgers said that whether or not a club trip needs a chaperone depends on where they are traveling to and how many students are attending. Patricio Meneses, interim associate dean for student support and academic initiatives, said the excused absence policy is currently under review.

Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Charles Clency shared intoxication reports this month. He said that the amount of intoxication cases was lower than in previous years and that the Office of Residential Life is starting to see a downward trend in alcohol usage.

The Commuter Student Association (CSA) shared that they had been in discussions with academic deans about registration times.

They shared that registration for the fall 2023 semester will start at 8 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. to facilitate commuter student schedules better.

Vidal announced that USG elections would take place on May 1-2, and that they are currently in the process of reviewing the election code. He also stated that this year’s gov-

ernment recorded a higher amount of proposals and statements than any year before.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs said they had been celebrating Women’s “Herstory” Month and were continuing the process of encouraging students to come up to their new suite.

The Gabelli School of Business announced that they hosted a small business pop-up in Hughes Hall. The representative mentioned that the Gabelli Dean’s Council was heavily involved in the popup.

A representative from OSI stated that President Tania Tetlow met with cultural clubs about diversity, equity and inclusion. OSI also announced senior week ticket sales start the week after spring break.

A representative from the Resident Assistants talked about the ongoing Fordham Resident Assistants Union (FRA), stating that there seem to be people on both sides of the issue. The representative added that people generally feel good about their assignments for the 2023-24 school year.

Rodgers announced that the university is currently deciding whether or not to continue with the New York Times subscription program.

He also said that the episode of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” shot on Fordham’s campus earlier this year will premiere in April.

University officials encourage students to attend the monthly SLC meetings to have their voice heard on a variety of university issues and topics and to hear from university organizations.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Fordham’s club budget has not accounted for its rising student population.

COURTESY OF THE RAM ARCHIVES

USG cites inflation as one of its primary reasons for needing more funding.

OPINION

March 22, 2023

R

Serving the Fordham University campus and community since 1918 The Fordham Ram is the university journal of record. The mission of The Fordham Ram is to provide a forum for the free and open exchange of ideas in service to the community and to act as a student advocate. The Fordham Ram is published every Wednesday during the academic year to all campuses.

Website TheFordhamRam.com Email Address theram@fordham.edu Editor in Chief Isabel Danzis Managing Editor Sebastian Diaz Production Editor Michael Sluck Editorial Director Jamison Rodgers Multimedia Director Frances Schnepff Business Director Matthew Colucci Copy Chief Hannah Boring Assistant Copy Chief Sophia Forlenza News Editor Emma Kim Features Editor Samantha Minear Assistant News Editors Sofia Donohue Grace Galbreath Opinion Editor Nicole Braun Assistant Opinion Editors Evan McManus Olivia Teare Culture Editors Kari White Ilaina Kim Assistant Culture Editor Lauren Lombardi Sports Editors Nick Guzman Maddie Bimonte Assistant Sports Editor Lou Orlando Social Media Director Rory Donahue Digital Producers Ava Carreiro Julia Ocello Grace Campbell Claire Krieger Visual Director Lily Poorman Photo Editor Alexandra Antonov Advertising Directors Kathleen Hollinger Grace Miller Faculty Advisor Beth Knobel Editorial Policy The Fordham Ram’s editorial reflects the editorial board’s opinions or views.

Opinion Policy The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of The Fordham Ram. Submissions Policy The Fordham Ram reserves the right to reject or edit any submission for any reason, without notice. Submissions become the exclusive property of The Fordham Ram. No part of the The Fordham Ram may be reproduced without written consent.

Page 7

From the Desk | Evan McManus

My Ever-Changing Relationship With New York City I have always been drawn to New York City. Although I did not grow up here, I spent much of my childhood reading books and watching movies set in the city. The way I perceived the city was based on films like “Night at the Museum” and “Elf.” There was something about seeing pictures of that skyline with its tremendously tall buildings that captured my imagination. The island of Manhattan is the opposite of where I grew up. My hometown of Dover, Mass., is far removed from the urban hustle and bustle. Instead of being surrounded by skyscrapers, my house was surrounded by big yards, long windy roads and a lot of trees.

My interest in the place only grew after my first visit. I still remember driving down to New York and feeling so excited.

When we finally arrived, we visited all the touristy spots. We went to Times Square, where my sister and I rode the Toys R Us Ferris Wheel. The next day we went to the top of the Empire State Building, and I finally saw the famous skyline with my own eyes. By the end of our short trip, as we drove away on the Henry Hudson Parkway, I knew that I wanted to visit again soon.

As I got older and returned, we

went to more destinations in the city, like the Met and High Line.

We always went to the touristy spots and never left the Manhattan area. Fundamentally, the lens through which I was viewing New York was as a tourist.

When I started applying to colleges during my senior year of high school, I was drawn to Fordham because it was in New York City. All the mail and emails I got from the school were plastered with people in Fordham shirts walking through Central Park or sitting in front of Grand Central Station. The marketing worked because when it came time to decide on a college, I picked Fordham. At the start of my freshman year, the lens I viewed the city was still through the eyes of a tourist. The first place I went to visit with friends was Times Square. However, the more time I spent at Fordham, the more I learned about the city. Learning led to me exploring, and soon my relationship with the city changed.

I don’t think there was a certain moment when my relationship with the city changed into what it is now. But I know that one component of that change was the accumulation of memories that I have made throughout the city. As a tourist, you walk

around a place and it’s a blank slate. When you’ve lived somewhere for a while, that restaurant you used to walk by without thinking now holds the memory of a dinner with friends. A bench in Central Park that once blended in with the rest now sticks out because you once sat there while reading a good book. You now get chills at a certain street corner because that’s where you almost got run over by one of those fast scooters food delivery people always seem to drive. For me, these experiences have transformed New York from a destination that I would visit into a city that is alive with memories. It’s these experiences scattered throughout the city that made my relationship with the city change from a touristy

one to a personal one.

What this experience has taught me is that our relationships with a place are always changing. In fact, leaving Dover for college changed my relationship with that place as well. The things that used to annoy me, like the number of trees, are now things I miss. My relationship with New York is not done evolving. I am confident it will change. However, I have no clue how it will change. Maybe I will grow to love the city even more and want to stay after graduation. It’s also possible that I may get tired of the hustle and bustle and want to live somewhere quieter. Until then, I will continue to enjoy my college experience and hopefully continue learning and exploring New York.

Editorial | Contraceptives on Campus

Fordham is a Fair-Weather Catholic School It’s a conversation that has been circulating around campus for decades. It is a request students have been making for years. And it is a stance the university has not wavered on. The hot button topic that has come back into focus following comments President Tania Tetlow made at the March 1 student press meeting is the access to contraceptives on Fordham’s campus.

Nothing has changed surrounding the access and policies of contraceptives being made available on campus, but what is new is the rhetoric coming from the university president. President Tetlow revealed to the panel of student journalists that while she herself holds beliefs that are different from the Catholic Church’s doctrine on the use of contraception, Fordham won’t be changing the policies surrounding this issue unless the Catholic Church changes said doctrine.

The rationale behind withholding access to contraceptives on campus being simply related to church doctrine seems far-fetched.

Fordham does not seem to have a problem with supplying university funding to break away from other doctrine-based decrees. While this is not a comprehensive list of every way that Fordham picks and chooses when to be a Catholic institution, this is a small sampling of Fordham’s financially-backed breaks from Catholic doctrine.

The first deviation from doctrine that Fordham has allowed, by supplying club funding, is the support and allowance of LGBTQ+ affinity groups to form. The stance of the Roman Catholic Church on LGBTQ+ support is to offer help,

in the form of prayer, in regards to “self-mastery.” Essentially, what this translates to is the encouragement of identity suppression for those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Fordham’s sponsorship of a PRIDE Alliance goes beyond simply providing a space for student advocacy; the university actively budgets and provides money for the students to plan group activities.

It is a requirement from Catholic doctrine for people to attend mass every Sunday. Fordham does not implement a requirement to attend mass services for any students.

Fordham touts the ideal of being a welcoming community for all faith denominations and in order to not chase students (and their tuition payments) away, mass attendance is not required.

If the rationale for not requiring mass attendance is due to the multi-faith community that makes up Fordham, then why is that same logic not applied to the contraceptive policies as well? The policy on access to contraception could follow in a similar vein to mass attendance: personal preference based on individual beliefs.

Another area where Fordham deviates from the prescribed doctrine is the serving of meat on Fridays in Lent. It is a Catholic tradition to abstain from eating meat every Friday in Lent as a form of sacrifice. Along the same lines, derived from the Bible in Leviticus, eating shellfish makes a person “unclean,” however, that does not prevent the Marketplace from serving shrimp. Fordham uses dining funds to purchase and serve meat on Fridays in Lent and shellfish

throughout the school year. These may seem like small examples, but if the reason behind withholding access to contraceptives on campus is Church doctrine then why are these exceptions, whether big or small, allowed?

Looking outside of Fordham, the Ram investigated whether other Jesuit institutions have the same stance on access to contraceptives. Universities such as Fairfield University and Sacred Heart do not provide on-campus contraceptives to students through the on-campus health center. However, similar to Fordham, their health insurance plans cover various forms of birth control prescribed by an outside provider. Other Jesuit institutions, such as Georgetown University, only started including birth control coverage in their health insurance plan for students in 2012.

Georgetown now adopts a similar policy to Fordham in that students can be prescribed birth control for a medical condition that is documented, however, they also point out that Georgetown will not pay or fund birth control prescriptions through their healthcare plan.

While Fordham seems to be in step with other Jesuit institutions, there is a common stipulation among these universities pertaining to prescribing birth control that is a red flag. The piece about

documenting a health condition in order to receive the prescription can be more difficult to obtain than it may first appear as many reproductive health concerns are dismissed without further testing.

This difficulty in obtaining documentation could result in those who need a birth control prescription being denied one, meaning this lack of university funding for birth control on campus could infringe on their ability to carry out daily tasks such as attending class.

Fordham is cherry-picking which aspects of the Catholic doctrine to uphold and which are not only fine to let fall by the wayside, but actively provides the funding that allows for the break from the doctrine. This is truly one of the only pieces of Catholic social teaching that is still being clung to and it begs the question of why? Why is it okay to deviate from everything else the church prescribes, but not this one issue? President Tetlow can try to win over student opinion on this matter by claiming to be personally against this doctrine, but the logic behind keeping this in place does not add up.

If you have any questions, concerns or inquiries, please email therameditorialdirector@ gmail.com

Page 8

OPINION Andrew Tate’s Carefully Constructed and Pathetic Patriarchy

March 22, 2023

By ALEXEI GANNON COLUMNIST

The rise of Andrew Tate as an internet celebrity demonstrates the ways social media technologies are changing patriarchy and other ideological systems through the process of cultural internationalization.

Tate is a British-American businessman who has become infamous online because of his role as a mouthpiece for misogynistic values as well as the allegations of human trafficking that have him imprisoned. He permeates social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, so much so that he’s become a problem for teachers as a popular influence on young teenage students in America and Britain. When he was arrested on account of human trafficking allegations, dozens of young people protested in Athens. Out of seemingly nowhere, this man has developed an international base of misogynists.

Internet fame is difficult to quantify. He has roughly 4.5 million followers, but his transformation into a symbol of the digital right-wing likely makes that number an underestimation. Like many right-wing internet celebrities — Jordan Peterson might be the closest example — clips of Andrew Tate get reposted, translated, edited and go viral constantly. Of course, this was the plan. Tate instructed his fans to edit and repost his content to stir up controversy as a tactic to gain popularity in 2022, and it worked. In a system that demands constant discourse, Tate’s extreme misogynistic persona has transformed Tate into discourse itself.

In the search for money and fame

through the maximization of digital engagement, Tate developed his sexist persona into a cultural product that could be consumed and replicated internationally.

While the process is not new, this developing international patriarchy has not been the norm.

Various cultural schemas of gender roles have been interwoven into national identity since the nationstate emerged. The masculine ideal varies from country to country.

These national ideals, gendered or otherwise, emerged from the weaving together of economically and linguistically disconnected cultures in the process of nationstate formation. As Benedict Anderson argued in his book “Imagined Communities,” the nation emerged as a material possibility alongside “print capitalism” during the 16th century.

The development of the printingpress combined with an active mercantile society capable of distributing print media collapsed local cultural differences, shaping national cultures and value systems.

Since then, media infrastructures have continued to be a key factor in shaping national identity.

National newspapers and news television in America are dominated by national politics and “culture wars.” These channels help define what the average American is thinking about, what frameworks they approach these issues with and their general value systems. They help make a distinctly “American” political culture more coherent. Most countries have had their own version of this system throughout the 20th century.

However, the internet and social media have upturned national cul-

ture by creating an instantaneous and global network of communication than previously possible, causing identity and value systems to internationally metamorphize even further. In his 2019 critique of social media, “The Twittering Machine,” Richard Seymour posits that the broad coalition of internet users in their constant discourse and media consumption are constituting a new, international social structure.

He then asks, “So, if a new type of country is being born, what sort of country is it?”

If we are looking to see what the future of patriarchy in a globalized world could look like, Tate might be the best example we have. Tate rose to prominence by putting himself in line with the manifestation of the digital globalized patriarchal value systems, creating a brand of internationalist patriarchy built on abstract domination. Tate’s patriarchy is best understood as the abstract worship of hierarchy based on individual strategic, economic and sexual domination.

Tate’s view on strategy is often expressed through his obsession with chess, probably because his father was a grandmaster. Tate has said that he values chess because it teaches you that every mistake you make is your own fault. Much of his content is about being able to “outsmart” and “trick” one’s enemies to get ahead in life. He posts photos of himself playing chess or pointing at a chess board surrounded by barely-dressed models to indicate how masculine and intelligent he is. This strategic dominance is what makes him “Top G.” His argument to young men all around the globe is that what is keeping them from what they truly desire

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Andrew Tate’s social media strategy promotes an international patriarchy.

are their strategic failures, which might be corrected by listening to him. Individual social dominance, in this view, is a direct reflection of intelligence. Inequality is always deserved, but only temporary for those masculine enough to take control.

Through this narrative Tate’s international patriarchy works alongside the forces of global capitalism to entice alienated young men who believe they are exceptional. Tate insists on a narrative of escape from the “matrix,” the domination of everyday life and particularly wage-labor. His online programs like “Hustler’s University,” “The Real World” or “The War Room” promise the secrets of quick wealth — mostly just cryptocurrency nonsense. This idea that one can escape the pressures of global capitalism or working-class life through rational individualism is an essential pillar of international patriarchy.

The other essential pillar is built around the dehumanization and commodification of women. He (allegedly) trafficks young women across Europe into sex work; his commodification of women for

their perceived sexual value is in no way metaphorical. Tate’s wealth and social dominance is built directly off of sexualized violence against women.

Of course, these tendencies have already existed around the globe semi-independently from each other. Andrew Tate is not special or historically relevant. He has done nothing but tap into the underbelly of international misogyny in a way which reveals what globalization and technological interconnectedness will not erase on its own.

Where has this mindset left Tate? He is an international fugitive, imprisoned, angry and alone.

He’s not even a good boxer. He is pathetic. Patriarchy is a rotten system that produces isolated, pathetic men and exploited and abused women. Let us teach the next generation that there might be far better futures without it.

Alexei Gannon, FCRH ’25, is a biology and history major from Allentown, Penn.

On the Scarcity of Passion & the Need to Share It

By JOHN WENZ

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Three recent events are on my mind. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a train derailment in Ohio and an earthquake in Turkey. The full span of human tragedy in three items: wickedness, error and natural occurrence. In keeping up with the news, one is beckoned to retreat from the greater world and back into the comfort of a passionless, even misanthropic life.

Paralyzed by a fear of the world, many will turn away from the life their heart is leading them to and remain stagnant consumers. This is a great tragedy, the life of intake and exhaust, of leaving the world emptier than you found it.

The body is a crude vessel for a mind condemned to wither away, but these are the engines of the splendid light of your consciousness. Your life is a precious gift, and in a sense, you are free to do with it as you please. But the delicate transience of this gift and the reality that it was wasted and ruined for countless, by no fault of their own, has burdened you with a great debt to yourself and your neighbors, much more than most

will ever repay. You are categorically obligated to live a brilliant life, and all the time we spend chasing our tails and groveling in cynicism is a gross repudiation of the gift of a brief time to spend in this world.

Unfortunately, much of what we fill our days with is without any true end. Listen for a moment. Don’t you feel the unrest within you? Do not extinguish it with idle pleasures or regard it as an illness to be treated — cultivate it. It is your own spirit speaking to you, because you are the miraculous result of perhaps the work of an intelligent creator or else the arbitrary collision of particles. It is your own voice guiding you. There lies a fire in everyone’s chest but it can too easily be starved by despair.

How do we conquer despair?

First we must start from nothing.

Suppose there is nothing greater than us, and our universe is cold and chaotic. What is to be done then? To put it as Camus did, revolt. Create a display of the human spirit in the face of futility. Show yourself and us all that you are not shaken by the prospect of an absurd and wicked world, or the constant risk of death or reality of

decay. Do not deny these things but look upon them and live with boldness and passion in spite of them. There is nothing else to do!

I would rather die with a vision of what I almost had, what could have been, than with a mind so empty and stifled by the incessant pessimism and shameful displays of spiritual opulence in our world.

Float above these things. Do it for your own sake and as a testament to the movement of every particle that put the breath of life in you and your forebears and everyone else who has ever lived. Whether this movement was guided by a divine hand or not, this is the glory of the human life.

The next imperative is to reject fear of terrible occurrences. When such an earthquake as the recent one in Turkey kills tens of thousands like nothing at all, you are reminded of how easily your life can be taken away. You may spend your entire life cultivating virtue only to have everything torn from you. You may be days away from completing your masterpiece only to be hit by a bus. Do not allow this idle fear to paralyze you as it does so many — is this not part of the thrilling gamble of living?

Life is not for the faint of heart!

Countless generations of people before you fought through violent conflict, pestilence and spiritual decay, certain of their own mortality, perhaps without hope for anything better, and continued to live and procreate. The courage of your ancestors resulted in your own miraculous and unthinkably improbable existence. Do not allow yourself to squander what has been passed down to you from many hands.

It is indeed a precious gift. Remember that every act of cowardice — and you always know in your heart the difference between cowardice and prudence — is a betrayal and repudiation of this gift.

You must chase the vision that you have for a better reality with wild eyes and never allow yourself to be deterred from it. There is so much ugliness and bitterness in this world, so much senseless cruelty, and yet there is light in every one of us. You are capable of wondrous things because you are just as much of a human as anyone else who ever was.

When met with the prospect of Camus’s absurdity, which everyone is at one point or another in their life, the ultimate display of human courage is the act of

creation precisely because it denies absurdity. Be it the creation of art, a family or a brilliant life.

Even with the suspicion that all I build will be torn down, all things I create negated and extinguished completely upon my death and the eventual destruction of the world, I will build it anyway. I know that everything I do will die, but still I persist. I work to better the lives of others though there are endless more who suffer. I struggle for every instance of beauty I can bring into this world.

Seize control of your life because no one else can. Countless people, particularly the youth, are paralyzed because they have been convinced that they are impotent.

Not so! You are a human, and to be human is to struggle for a better life if for nothing else than its own sake. To do the alternative, to retreat back into sedation each time you arise from it, is to betray whatever imbued you with the breath of life. Cultivate your strength and your beauty, and spread it throughout the world.

John Wenz, FCRH ’26, is undeclared from West Hartford, Conn.

OPINION

March 22, 2023

Page 9

AI Tech is a Benefit to, Not a Betrayal of, the Medical Field

By SAISHA ISLAM STAFF WRITER

Due to recent technological developments, the debate around A.I. software has grown and many have wondered about its place in the medical field. These advancements in A.I. are leading to breakthroughs that doctors and radiologists have missed before. This is most adeptly seen in A.I. software regarding the reading of mammograms, something which is relatively new. Though the inclusion of A.I. software in the medical field has already reaped many benefits, some worry about the possible future implications, particularly about how A.I. tools could replace human radiologists and reduce job availability in the workforce.

Despite this, the perks of A.I. software should be taken into consideration. A.I. software from Kheiron Medical Technologies has helped radiologists by reducing the number of X-rays they needed to read by “at least 30 percent” and from data reported by a Hungarian clinic, this technology “increased the cancer detection rate by 13 percent” by detecting more malignancies. When testing the technology by challenging it with more

complex cases as Dr. Tabár did in 2021, the A.I. software detected the signs of developing cancer in every single case.

On Nov. 28, Google launched their new A.I. algorithm iCAD to be a part of commercial mammograms. In the United States, approximately 33 million mammogram screenings are performed every year, but “about 20 percent of breast cancers” are missed and false positives are common. When the new A.I. algorithm was tested in the U.S. on known cases, the technology “produced a 9.4 percent reduction in false negatives” and “provided a lowering of 5.7 percent in false positives.” Additionally, other than being of use by reading mammograms, A.I. software has also been found to be of use to “detect lung cancers on CT scans, diagnose eye disease in people with diabetes and find cancer on microscope slides.”

Although the benefits of A.I. software in the medical field are apparent, there are still other factors that should be taken into consideration regarding the advancement of this technology.

These factors involve inputting a variety of cases from many racial backgrounds, as well as

identifying differences specific to racial or ethnic groups such as in the case of African American women who “are at higher risk of developing more aggressive types of breast cancer and are more likely to die of the disease than other women.” In addition, A.I. software isn’t completely perfect and in some cases can miss malignancies that are found by radiologists.

While many are worried about A.I. tools replacing radiologists, I think that this outcome is more unlikely than people think. A.I. tools have shown great benefits in the medical field through reducing workloads or detecting signs of diseases in cases which doctors may miss due to human error. Regardless of this, patient care is still a largely human endeavor and while many people may be comforted by the idea of A.I. software checking their cases, they would still want doctors to also review their progress and double-check. Many tasks can be delegated to A.I. tools, but the greatest advantages to patient care would be achieved by doctors working with A.I. to detect more signs of disease and helping patients take the next steps to recover.

As discussed before, A.I. technology is still imperfect and there have

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New A.I. technology in the medical field will help doctors treat patients.

been cases where doctors detected malignancies where A.I. software hasn’t and vice versa.

In today’s world where technology is starting to outpace human ability, it is natural to be worried about job availability, but in regards to the medical field, the human aspect in helping patients shouldn’t be underestimated. Physicians and their care and treatment for patients isn’t something that can be replaced by A.I.; instead A.I. software should be viewed as a tool to make patient care more beneficial and efficient. Human error is something that can’t be

helped most of the time, but A.I. technology can help reduce the impact of this and create more advantages for both doctors and patients.

In the end, the use of these newly developed A.I. technologies will not only benefit patients by helping detect more infinitesimal signs of disease but also aid physicians who can use them as tools to double check cases and reduce their workload so they are more able to focus on patient care and treatment plans for disease recovery.

Saisha Islam, FCRH ’25, is a biology major from New York, N.Y.

The Passing of the Willow Project is Another Federal Failure

By ALEXANDRA RAPP CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Once again the United States government has failed to respond to national outrage over an environmental decision which will impact generations to come.

President Joe Biden approved of the Willow Project on Monday, March 13, to the shock and disappointment of many climate activists and young people. Willow is expected to be the largest proposed oil drilling project on federal lands in US history. The 30-year project is expected to produce 180 thousand barrels of oil a day in Alaska’s North Slope, roughly 600 miles from Anchorage. The blow was especially bitter because Biden had promised during his campaign, “no more drilling on federal lands, period, period, period.” Such hypocrisy is nothing new — presidents and politicians have always made empty promises to earn the vote, but the betrayal is no less disappointing.

Climate protests have been happening for decades at this point.

My mother was protesting pollution from heavy industries in the late 1970s when people started to notice that winters were getting more mild, and fewer and fewer birds were being seen in upstate New York. She was not a part of the first climate activists by any stretch of the imagination, but she experienced the same crushing disappointment that thousands experienced on March 13 when a promise for a cleaner future was broken.

Local and federal governments didn’t listen then, and it appears that they still aren’t listening now.

Climate protests have moved

into the technological era, where most outrage is being taken to the media rather than the streets. Climate marches are still happening, but now people can connect across the globe to share their fears and anger over how little is being done to reverse or even slow climate change. The #StopWillow tag has gained significant momentum on social media, with videos of young people educating on what the project means and lamenting their choice of president are gaining millions of views and likes. Since the project has been approved, the momentum of the campaign has taken a major blow. Many have become so disillusioned that the desire to resist seems all but lost since no amount of online protest appeared to have any meaningful impact.

But why this project? Why now?

Well, Willow isn’t the first oil drilling project to receive massive backlash and it probably won’t be the last. What’s different now is that Gen Z is old enough to realize that no matter who they vote for, they’re going to be disappointed.

The most viewed TikToks under #StopWillow feature lamentful guitar backgrounds, nauseating facts about the 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide that will be released into the environment and imagery of what is left of the already seriously compromised Arctic wildlife. Other videos include young people yelling about how this decision is a serious underestimation of Gen Z’s rage and refusal to sit back and accept injustices which will most impact young people.

These videos are at once inspiring and gut-wrenching. Anyone

who has had any involvement with protests over the years knows that an internet campaign is only good in the short term. I can remember the 99% marches from when I was eight years old during the economic crash of 2008, the Women’s March the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the climate march of 2018 and the Black Lives Matter marches of 2020. Protesting is an honest cornerstone of American political culture, but so is ignoring those protests and forgetting about the injustice the second it becomes inconvenient to keep up with or the second it doesn’t feel “cool” to keep caring about.

The problem with climate change protest momentum in the first place is the refusal to acknowledge it and refusal to call out the real culprits. The U.S. education system has been teaching children to recycle and take personal responsibility for decades, making young children feel guilty for using plastic straws instead of holding politicians and major corporations (one and the same with the way U.S. lobbying policy functions) responsible for funding projects which have destroyed rainforests and exploited vital natural resources. It is only in the last few years, with the increased interconnection of people and access to infinite information online, that people have begun to realize the scheme of holding individuals, rather than corporations, responsible. We have spent decades blaming countries with high birth rates (meaning countries who have not been given the same opportunities to become service industries) for “overpopulation” and destruction of their own environments when it is Western

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The Willow Project in Alaska endangers the future of our environment.

corporations that have directly benefited from dumping dangerous chemicals into the Ganges and using exploitative human labor to make products for the global West.

The Willow Project is just another example of how powerless normal people are to shape decisions which will impact them. But the online outrage is also beginning to expose the ways in which people are starting to realize it’s not their fault and, in fact, there are people in power who can do something to prevent further climate destruction yet choose not to.

Making a TikTok crying about Biden’s decision or a blacked-out Instagram post to protest racial injustice is, unfortunately, about as impactful as switching to paper straws. These actions are not without meaning; they express solidarity and an effort to improve the conditions of the world — and are often a great way to educate people.

But they do not change the structural issues of a society hellbent on giving corporations more power than God to do whatever they want

to environments around the globe.

The most important thing a person can do is call their local politician.

Yell, scream and fight whenever possible and don’t stop until someone with power actually listens.

Until actual policy changes begin, until Gen Z is in Congress, the UN and CEOs of major corporations (so long as we keep our environmentalist fervor) then nothing will get better, and we need to temper our expectations of ourselves and each other without losing sight of what we want to see changed.

The Willow Project will be a 30year endeavor, and maybe in 30 years, we will have enough clean energy that it will be such an economic loss that they abandon the project altogether. But we should be angry and disappointed, and we should be directing that anger into how we vote and who we become, and maybe a TikTok video or two wouldn’t hurt in the meantime.

Alexandra Rapp, FCRH ’24, is a history and international studies major from Hershey, Pa.

OPINION

Page 10

March 22, 2023

Dahl and the Dangerous Deletions

By NICOLE BRAUN OPINION EDITOR

Think of all the problems in the world related to literature and the sharing of words. From the hate speech running rampant on social media platforms, to the heavyhanded and unnecessary banning of books in schools and public libraries. Does it comfort you, then, that publishers are focused on censoring adjectives in children’s literature?

Earlier this month, the UK division of Puffin Books, under the Penguin Random House umbrella, announced that they were making changes to Roald Dahl’s books, especially in regards to word choice.

They took out adjectives like “fat” and “ugly,” and changed “James and the Giant Peach”’s cloud men to “cloud people.” CNN reports that “language relating to gender, race, weight, mental health and violence had been cut or rewritten… as well as descriptions using the colors black and white.”

It’s no secret that Dahl made some hateful comments and openly named himself an anti-Semite, yet such alterations to his books are unnecessary at best and dangerous at worst. Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, an organization that strives to protect free speech and safeguard works from censorship, says, “Those who might cheer specific edits to Dahl’s work should consider how the power to rewrite books might be used in the hands of those who do not share their values and sensibilities.”

The rhetorical changes were made with the best of intentions, I’m sure, but they set a horrible

precedent that classic works of literature can be changed at whim to align with modern values, with whatever social wave is crashing on the shore. Currently, that inclination is appreciation for inclusivity and diversity, however this could change in a few years, one could even argue that this change is occurring now.

Furthermore, while one can understand, if not agree, with words being altered to be more sensitive to contemporary values and perspectives, the changes made to Dahl’s book are very surface level and seem to have no connection to the harmful statements he made in real life. With the knowledge of the explicitly anti-Semitic language that Dahl used in his own personal life, adjectives like “fat” and “ugly” are not even drops in the bucket, for those words are not even “bad” — there is nothing wrong with being fat or ugly, they just carry a certain connotation because of our society’s obsession with beauty norms. It raises the question of why even make the changes at all? The change from “cloud men” to “cloud people” is especially puzzling. Do publishers really believe that a child’s perception of the patriarchy begins with them only being shown that men could be clouds? As if they won’t learn in schools that there has never been a female president of one of the world’s most powerful nations, or even see it at play in their own school, as men are more likely to hold positions of power in school districts than women.

And like… there can be cloud men. That is a fictional world. In the real world, getting

inclusivity for cloud women is not at the forefront of the fight for gender equality.

This headline from the New York Times highlights this disconnect best: “Roald Dahl’s Books Are Rewritten to Cut Potentially Offensive Language.” I’m a woman, and when I read “James and the Giant Peach” as a kid, I wasn’t offended that there were cloud men and not cloud women. Now, I’m an adult reflecting on the book, and, you know what, I’m still not offended.

Don’t cut language based on presumptive offense.

The language that was changed

by Puffin is relatively inconsequential and has seemingly very little to do with the real life terrible comments Dahl made, so these changes seem unnecessary. And, in light of other classic works of children’s literature, Dahl’s use of socially inappropriate adjectives does not even seem that bad. For example, barely concealed themes of sexism, racism and antisemitism are present in giant literary and film franchises such as “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” series, that are much more damaging than Miss Trunchbull being called ugly.

Bringing up J. K. Rowling’s work also highlights another issue that seems to be underlying the censorship of Dahl’s work: can we separate the art from the artist?

I think we can, but it depends on the circumstances. As for Rowling, I do not think we can separate her from her beloved series because she is still actively tarnishing the legacy of “Harry Potter.” Dahl, on the other hand, has been dead for thirty years, and I think the enor-

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Puffin’s decision to change Dahl’s words is unnecessary and dangerous.

mity of his books have surpassed the awfulness of his character in the minds of readers. The inconsequential linguistic changes made to Dahl’s books seems to be an elaborate apology for the words the author said in real life. Instead of changing Dahl’s words, Puffin should have added a disclaimer to new printings, similar to Disney’s, that alerts readers that some of the language might be insensitive.

That said, Puffin did announce that they would be adding a note on the copypage of each newly printed Dahl book, not a disclaimer of Dahl, but rather their own actions: “Words matter. The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvelous characters. This book was written many years ago and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

Words do matter. When we

change language to make it more generic, we nullify its meaning.

In sanitizing language that might not even offend, we take away children’s ability to see language as rich, evocative, biting and, yes, sometimes mean. How are kids supposed to learn that words have power, for better or for worse, if we eradicate them all? In erasing adjectives, are we not just moving one step closer to the “good” and “ungood” of George Orwell’s “1984” Newspeak?

While Dahl is certainly not someone to be idolized, the decision to alter the language in his classic children’s books is unnecessary and dangerous. The publishing industry and all those who care about literature at-large should be focused on fighting literary censorship, not leading the charge.

Nicole Braun, FCRH ’24, is an English major from Saddle River, N.J.

Are Genetically Engineered Babies a Step Too Far?

By CAROLYN BRANIGAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Though it started as a noble effort to develop gene editing, recent uses of the renowned tool CRISPR have opened society up to a plethora of ethical issues. Initially, the idea of CRISPR was to remove, add or otherwise edit genes to curb the transmission of serious illnesses, like malaria and cholera. Through the deletion of these “problematic” genes, scientists hoped to create disease-resistant offspring and eventually introduce these resistant genes into the rest of the population. However, this is a slippery slope.

Though scientists might only want this technology and similar technologies that are being developed to be used only for health reasons, there is room for this science to be abused.

Designer babies, for one, are the clearest example. Humans, Americans in particular, are concerned with being the best of the best, and have a pretty horrific track record of ruining things in their natural state in order to achieve this elusive “perfect” life.

So with gene editing technology now making its way into human reproductive trials, why would

we as a society just stop at medical necessity? Parents could theoretically pay to make their children Harvard-level geniuses with the athletic ability of Michael Phelps.

Or perhaps they could genetically engineer the next Van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci. You can even get as vain as deciding what color eyes your child could have, how short or tall they would be or even the color of their hair and the speed with which it grows. Simply put, there is no limit to this kind of technology.

Sure, many of these potential negative implications would only exist if the science behind gene editing continues to develop, but at the rate of current technological and scientific advancements, this future is by no means unlikely.

Gene editing technology would become the societal elite’s new bread and butter. Only those in the most favorable of economic conditions would be able to essentially “upgrade” their children to the point where they were devoid of human flaws.

And at that point these children wouldn’t be human anymore.

Setting aside the countless yetto-be documented side effects that might result from gene editing, CRISPR and similar technologies

pose a great threat to society if they become mainstream. It would only strengthen the imbalance of power between societal classes, and it would create many perfect-onpaper children that would lack the originality and randomness that comes with the traditional generearranging during reproduction.

Part of what makes life what it is are the elements of error and randomness. Gene editing wouldn’t immediately eradicate this, but over time it certainly would.

The way things currently are, CRISPR has changed the playing field in an irreparable way. There are already social groups that experience a higher likelihood of genetic disease due to geography, culture and poverty. And CRISPR is not being used to address those disparities currently, nor is it likely that medical-tech companies with technologies would use CRISPR for these reasons. Gene editing will go where the money is, and the money is with the rich and elite.

Therefore, any healthcare inequities we currently have will not be solved by CRISPR. Instead, they will worsen.

Certain applications of human genetic technologies pose clear dangers, and CRISPR is no exception to this. In the context of

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Genetically editing children poses ethical and safety concerns.

enormous detention centers housing a million or more individuals, the Chinese government is forcibly collecting DNA from Uighurs and other minorities. Huge DNA databases have also been amassed by private companies, who market gene testing to naïve customers under the pretense that “what makes you, you” may be found in your genes. These concepts are encouraging the resurrection of the debunked notion that race is a biological rather than social characteristic, which is unquestionably a risky trend in an era of toxic racism and escalating xenophobia.

This is not to say that gene editing is synonymous with eugenics.

There are clearly a variety of uses for this kind of technology, and its regulated implementation in the medical sector would undoubtedly yield positive results. However, unless strict regulations can be put into place, this technology should remain under lock and key, or humans stand to face an ethical and societal crisis unparalleled to anything we have experienced before.

Carolyn Branigan, FCRH ’24, is an English and film & television major from Tinton Falls, N.J.

OPINION

March 22, 2023

Page 11

State-Sponsored Trans Violence is Genocide

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Violence against the transgender population is genocidal.

By SEBASTIAN DIAZ MANAGING EDITOR

Between March 12 and 19, five discriminatory bills against transgender people were passed into law in five states, while nine bills of the same type were proposed and filed in four other states. In that stretch of time, it became illegal to provide genderaffirming healthcare (including hormone treatment therapy and surgeries) in Florida.

Since the start of 2023, the Human Rights Campaign has officially identified six instances of fatal violence against transgender people as hate crimes alongside a concerningly-long list of incidents of fatal anti-trans hate crimes in the last three years alone (all in the United States).

These are just the ones that have been reported.

It’s time that we recognize the state-supported and social violence against the country’s transgender population exactly

what it is: genocide.

To outline how genocides are formed, carried out and how they can be stopped, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust published “The Ten Stages of Genocide.”

The eighth stage, Persecution, reads: “Victims are identified because of their ethnicity or religion and death lists are drawn up. People are sometimes segregated into ghettos, deported or starved and property is often expropriated.

Genocidal massacres begin.”

This isn’t a 1:1 exact match to the current conditions of transgender people under the state, as history cannot be forced into universal and transhistorical patterns. However, patterns emerge. While it isn’t an ethnicity or religion, transgenderism is an identity that can be abjected and vilified by an oppositional hegemony. Transgender people are becoming officially identified in laws that are actively seeking to harm and suffocate the existence

of transgender communities.

For example, the Kentucky Senate Bill 150 (SB150, passed on March 15) combined three bills into a long list of anti-trans legislation, which includes a ban on trans people using bathrooms corresponding to their identity, a ban on teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, a prohibition on the requirement to correctly gender students through pronoun use and the outlawing of gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth. Beyond calling SB150 “the worst anti-trans bill in the nation,” the Kentucky ACLU stated that “[t]his dangerous bill and others like it across the country are nothing more than a desperate attempt to score political points by targeting people who simply want to live their lives.”

The anti-trans legislation in Kentucky, like all the other states, is an example of state sanctioned violence and cannot be praised without also calling for the destruction of trans communities.

In fact, these kinds of bills are just cruel reminders that the state serves a solitary purpose of social repression, giving us our rights for the sake of complacency or taking them away when our existence threatens the stability of the state’s structure.

The term “genocidal massacre,” as it was coined by South African sociologist Leo Kuper, refers to identity-targeted murders occurring on levels smaller than direct genocides. To deny that genocidal massacres are beginning to occur against LGBT+ communities is to spit in the face of history.

Not only are anti-trans violent hate crimes occurring at higher rates than before, but they are becoming larger in scale. For instance, consider the recent shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs.

On Nov. 19, 2023, a shooter entered the club as it was closing

a drag show and in the midst of a dance party when, armed with an AR-15, the shooter shot and killed five club patrons, injuring 17 others. The shooting occurred just a day before the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

As a threat to transgender livelihood, the Club Q shooting was successful. In the shooting’s aftermath, drag queens and drag show organizers responded by upping security, preventative measures and contingency plans in preparation for further violence.

The second-deadliest shooting in U.S. history occurred in an LGBT+ nightclub, Pulse, just over six years ago. 49 dead. 53 injured.

The Ten Stages of Genocide provide historical perspective when looking at this issue. For Persecution to occur in a society, it is preceded by Classification.

The stages of Symbolization, Discrimination, Dehumanisation, Organisation, Polarization and finally Preparation. All of these stages have already occured. The stages have occurred through anti-trans rhetoric spouted by right-wing media and lawmakers. The final stage of Genocide is Extermination. It will occur if the state is allowed to continue its operation.

I cannot take credit for identifying the emerging pattern of anti-trans violence as the pattern of genocide. The parallels should be clear to anyone versed in historical analysis. At least one state official has also come forward with this opinion. Nebraska State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh compared historical examples of genocide to two bills that were being debated in the state senate.

The bills in question would ban the healthcare of trans and gender dysphoric youth and place restrictions on bathrooms and sports assignments. In her comparisons, Cavanaugh said “there is always

a set of circumstances which occur or which are created to build the climate in which genocide can take place.”

In response, Cavanaugh was threatened with censure, which is “a formal statement of disapproval… that can have a powerful psychological effect on a member and his/her relationships in the Senate.” In the history of the Nebraska State Senate, imposition of censure has not occurred since its only usage in 1955 after a state senator participated in a blackmail scheme.

If all that changes as a result of anti-trans violence is the beefing of security, then, as a society, all that we’ve done is normalized anti-trans violence and allowed it to continue. This is unacceptable.

Communities cannot continue to live in fear.

As I write this article in honor and remembrance of the transgender people who have inspired me in life and death, it makes my heart ache to think that the politicization of our group’s “right to exist” has led to violence on such a large scale. It should be a wake-up call for people still “on the fence” to realize that many still believe there’s moral decay, degeneracy or failure in a social superstructure that allows for the existence and prosperity of transgender people to such a degree that violence, both supported and carried out by the state, would be seen as necessary.

Taking even a moderate stance on the politicized right for transgender people to exist is actively harmful; the only correct choice is to wholeheartedly support the continued struggle for the existence of transgender communities across the country.

Sebastian Diaz, FCRH ’24, is a journalism and film major from Chapel Hill, N.C.

Cameras Illuminate the Judicial Process

By LINDSEY OSIT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The constitutionality of cameras in the courtroom is not a new debate. Many broadcasted courtroom proceedings have generated substantial press attention as of late, becoming topics of controversy across media platforms internationally. One recent example of this was the defamation trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. It sparked outcries amongst the public and fierce derision on social media. While some argue that this type of heated discussion is a negative consequence of broadcasted trials, it is the public’s right to act, react and speak out as they wish according to First Amendment rights. Under the same amendment, it is also the press’ right to inform their audience freely. Therefore, so long as due process can be adequately upheld, the filming and broadcasting of trials does not infringe upon the constitutional rights of the press and the public.

The presence of courtroom

cameras was first challenged in 1935 when the American Bar Association forbade broadcast coverage because they detracted from the “essential dignity” of trials. The ban persisted in federal courts until 1997, when members of Congress began giving presiding federal judges discretion to allow camera coverage. But between those years, certain states had already started to ignore Canon 35, including the states of Texas, Florida and Colorado. By 2006, all 50 states allowed some type of camera presence in their courtrooms. As for federal proceedings, most judges have declined to permit cameras in their courts. Still, they have the ability to allow cameras if they please.

And while the Supreme Court still rejects camera coverage of proceedings, full transcripts and audio recordings are available online; thus, the visual component should not be considered a violation of security.

The First Amendment explicitly states that Congress shall not make a law abridging the freedom of speech or the press.

In the words of former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, the separation of the free speech and free press clauses speaks to the “critical role played by the press in American society.” The institutional press which is comprised of the media outlets responsible for broadcasting programs, thus lie at the heart of an informed democratic society. The press clause of the amendment is designed to preserve that aspect of society: to protect public access to information and enable free debate.

In Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, the court concluded that the right of the public and press to attend criminal trials is guaranteed under the First and 14th Amendments. Since judicial proceedings are open to all, video broadcast simply expands the size of the courtroom. If anyone is allowed to view a trial in person, why shouldn’t the same go for electronic access?

While the Supreme Court has not recognized the right of public access to civil proceedings, most states and lower federal courts have. Still, there are circum-

stances in which a closed trial is deemed necessary, such as juvenile proceedings and other trials in which the need to protect the parties’ privacy is imminent. In these cases, camera use would clearly be prohibited. State courts have jurisdiction over camera remittance, so although many federal cases restrict it, lower courts operate differently. It is the same for civil cases: photography and broadcasting restrictions are imposed at the judge’s discretion.

I argue that audiovisual recordings and broadcasting should be allowed for trials made open to the public so long as they do not interfere with due process.

That being said, camera admittance can only be universally accepted with set guidelines detailing which situations violate due process and necessitate privacy.

For example, civil cases in which all parties decline camera usage should not be broadcast; since the proceedings are not concerned at the federal level, it is not the public’s right to be informed. Other limitations would include highly sensitive trials in which physical

public access is already restricted.

Considering such limitations, the use of cameras within the courtroom is consistent with the foundations of democracy, including transparency, open justice and a highly informed general public. A study conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom explores the impact of courtroom broadcasting on the audiences’ perceptions. The study confirmed the connection between seeing, understanding and trusting judicial proceedings. Subjects who were able to watch the footage rather than just listen were also more likely to recall details of the interactions.

The public has regular access to transcripts and audio recordings of trials, so live footage would simply enhance their understanding of proceedings. It is impractical to broadcast certain media forms for the purpose of informing the public when more informative media exists.

Lindsey Osit, FCRH ’24, is a journalism major from South Windsor, Conn.

OPINION

Page 12

March 22, 2023

Fox News and Dominion Go Head-To-Head

By MICHAEL DUKE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dominion is suing Fox News for what they claim to be lies spread about their voting systems and widespread distrust and irreversible damage done to the company by Fox hosts and Chief Executive of Fox Rupert Murdoch. However, in recent weeks, and with the progression of the lawsuit, more evidence has been presented and we have seen exactly what Dominion has in its pocket to prove that Fox damaged their brand and public trust on the whole. Firing back, Fox claims that they were platforming news that directly impacts the lives of all Americans on the basis of intel they deemed credible. Nonethless, since the main focus of the lawsuit is on Fox executive Murdoch, it is arguable that Fox’s current stance in the suit and other varying details pins Murdoch as both liable and not liable for Dominion’s claims.

On the night/morning of the election in 2020 when Fox called Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for Joe Biden, many Republicans were upset (namely, former President Donald Trump). It is also said that after the key call, Trump was seen yelling and seeking contact with Fox executives to get them to reverse their call, believing that he would win.

Murdoch is one of those executives, and though we do not

know the exact nature of what was said by Trump, we do know he ushered for different narratives and reversals of calls from Fox. In the hours and days following shortly after those calls, and as argued by Dominion in their suit against Fox News, anchors began hosting guests and reporting on claims that voting systems provided by Dominion on election day were rigged for Biden and cheated his opponent out of a second term.

Anchors from the Fox network including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Janine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Tucker Carlson are among some who reported the claims. But as of late, it is Murdoch who has come into the spotlight of the main questions of the suit.

Dominion has presented evidence in recent weeks that argues two main points against Murdoch in particular. One, Murdoch knew of the coup that Trump was attempting to stir in public opinion and hesitated to stop spreading related narratives.

Two, Murdoch intended to help Trump due to his background as a conservative and allowed guests to air controversial narratives about the election even after Biden was inaugurated.

However, many are questioning if Dominion pursuing damages of close to 1.6 billion dollars from Fox is something that is reasonable on the shaky ground

being argued. Though the suit itself is up to corporate attorneys to argue and for a judge to decide, the suit should focus on simple ideas of virtue and what the constitution outlines Fox and Murdoch did both right and wrong.

When the organization was started in 1996 by Murdoch, Fox News held intentions to be better than their “corrupt” opposition in the media and provide the news as is and without a particular political alignment. Now, it is argued that Fox is one amongst many mainstream media outlets that have fallen into the pitfall of giving into rhetoric that increases ratings rather than reporting the news as it is. After all, Fox and Murdoch are in business as well, so in distasteful ways, it’s justifiable. But, whether it is right, wrong or otherwise, the concept of the freedom of the press is one that many are neglecting in the suit.

This concept outlines that newspapers, magazines or anchors are given the right to report the news without intervention from the government. This is what allows us to have a free press and avoid authoritarian and state media models seen in countries such as North Korea.

But, in this suit presented by Dominion, it is alleged and put into a narrative that Murdoch was being used as a puppet by the Trump administration to

sway opinion. However, there is a great deal that Fox has argued that shuts this idea presented by Dominion down.

Namely, Fox argues that guests independent from Fox came onto their broadcasts, and the anchors or hosts themselves did not endorse ideas of election interference but only gave a platform to report stories that independent individuals gave evidence to back. At no point in the suit has Fox claimed they ever backed the ideas of election interference, but that they backed the news brought to them with facts behind them. This concept goes even further back than the issues raised during the Dominion suit and can be seen over the years with Fox’s reporting of similar findings through hosting individuals like those in organizations such as James O’Keefe with Project Veritas or Charlie Kirk with Turning Point USA. This concept is a common one in Fox’s reporting and goes deeper than the specific claims of catering to ideas of election interference. Over the years, Fox News has given a platform to report findings from individuals or organizations whom they might not “agree” with but have facts to back their specific claims and reporting.

In the end, this is a topic that has already been put to bed as many Americans simply don’t care about the 2020 election,

the best example being the 2022 midterms. In my view, regardless of the suit’s outcome, it will not affect viewership, reporting or standards at Fox because of the decay of demand in news related to 2020 in 2023. Further, if there were issues of election interference that were legitimate in 2020, they are further buried and made irrelevant by the Fox suit because suits like Dominion’s make true or untrue election statements null and void. Even if evidence proves such allegations and evidence of election fraud right, the mess of cases like this one confuses and makes surrounding conversation difficult.

However, if the suit ends in Dominion’s favor and the court finds that the allegations of libel have been met and Murdoch and Fox are responsible for intentionally harming the integrity of our national elections, any Fox anchor, employee or executive who engaged in such activities should suffer full potential legal consequences. It is simply in the best interests of our nation who’s still healing from COVID-19, economic obstacles and wounds made by the 2020 elections that this suit comes to the most correct and adequate conclusions so that we can learn from it and continue to trek forward.

Michael Duke, GSB ’26, is undecided from Scottsdale, Ariz.

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CULTURE “The Last of Us” is a Triumph for Video Game Adaptations

Page 13

March 22, 2023

By MICHAEL SLUCK PRODUCTION EDITOR

In the wake of the pandemic, I had avoided post-apocalyptic fiction, feeling that it hit a tad too close to home to make for good escapism. Combining that fact with my indifference to most video games, I mostly ignored “The Last of Us” when it came out in January, despite the positive buzz surrounding the new show. In February, however, my brother strongly recommended I watch, and I delved into the story, unsure of what to expect.

I’m grateful I did. “The Last of Us” is no cheap action-horror flick; instead, its realistic portrayal of characters in a dying world makes it one of the best dramatic television series in recent memory.

“The Last of Us” is set in a dystopian America that has been decimated by a fungal infection that transforms humans into zombies. The show focuses on Joel (Pedro Pascal), a smuggler residing in Boston, who is forced to transport 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the country. Along the way, they must survive the infected, a fascist government regime, rebel groups and religious cults. Based on a video game of the same name, the show has garnered praise for being one of the few video game adaptations to provide a faithful retelling that fully satisfies fans of the original material.

The first two episodes are standard post-apocalyptic fare — we’re introduced to the characters,

given a glimpse into their backstories and allowed to see how the world functions. The infected (the show’s version of zombies) are pretty similar to other monsters of the same type. The reasoning behind the apocalypse — a fungal infection based on a real disease, rather than the vague zombie plague that is so often credited — is unique and interesting. For the most part, however, the first two episodes of “The Last of Us” don’t give the viewer anything they haven’t seen before.

It’s not until episode three, “Long, Long Time,” that the show really begins to shine. The episode takes place almost entirely away from our protagonists, focusing instead on two other characters living a few miles outside of Boston.

Rather than the action-packed thriller you’d expect from a video game adaptation, “Long, Long

Time” is an almost quiet reflection on the purpose of life when the world falls apart. Despite its deviation from the main plot, the episode is a beautifully-crafted character study, with emotional and symbolic impacts on the rest of the show. Several other episodes are more focused on what seem like side stories, independent of the show’s central quest, but each episode serves an important narrative purpose, slowly building to the show’s moral climax.

While the action and horror elements of “The Last of Us” are well done, where the show really shines are the nuanced portrayals of its central characters. Joel and Ellie’s relationship is the highlight of the show, slowly developed over the course of the season. “The Last of Us” is a master of using small talk to build character — over the course of nine episodes, we grow

familiar with our protagonists not just through emotional confessions, but through small moments, making bad puns and reminiscing about the way the world used to be.

Pascal and Ramsey have fantastic chemistry — while it’s no easy task to carry an entire show, both actors prove their skill through realistic portrayals of their characters.

One flaw that has been appearing more and more in modern fiction is the idea that world-ending stakes are necessary to make a gripping story. Storytellers more and more seem to think that, the more people are at risk, the more invested audiences will be. Despite the apocalyptic wasteland in which it is set and the epic quest on which the protagonists find themselves, “The Last of Us” manages to avoid this common pitfall. We root for, care for and worry about Joel and Elle not because of the

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“The Last of Us” has satisfied fans of the original video game and those with an affinity for dystopian media.

fact that the world rests on their shoulders, but because we sincerely like them as characters. It’s a small thing, but how personal the characters feel goes a long way to creating tension and suspense.

The show is almost notable for the fascinating ethical dilemmas it raises, especially in the finale (Fordham students who have taken “Philosophical Ethics” will no doubt find much to discuss). “The Last of Us” spends nine episodes crafting a complex question about the good of the many versus the good of the few, and, unlike many other shows that offer similar quandaries, doesn’t take the easy way out. Going into the last episode, I was worried that “The Last of Us” would be unable to deliver a satisfying conclusion on all the plot elements that had been set up.

The season finale, however, was one of the best endings of TV I have ever seen. While the show has been renewed for a second season, I would be perfectly satisfied if the show had ended there, despite some of the ambiguity contained in the ending.

Even if you’re not a big video game or action fan, “The Last of Us” is an immersive emotional drama. While the beginning few episodes are a tad predictable, as the show progresses it transforms to create an incredible character-driven story that people of all tastes can enjoy.

Whether you like video games, dystopias or you’re just a fan of quality television, “The Last of Us” should be the latest addition on your “to-watch” list.

Crown Heights is New York City’s Hidden Gem

By CALEB STINE COLUMNIST

My favorite parts of my favorite neighborhoods of New York aren’t their special quirks and attractions, but their “unique normalities.” The paths and buildings don’t intend to stop one in their tracks, but are meant to blend in, making them so characteristic of their neighborhood in such a subtle way. In this way, they pique my interest and love for an area even more.

These are the Upper West Side brownstones, which seemingly look the same on each street in the 70s between Central Park West and Columbus, the dozens of taco trucks found on Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights and the bustling basketball courts of Harlem. When those seemingly mundane intricacies, which are the natural fabric of the neighborhood, are noticed, curiosity and appreciation multiply and indescribable feelings manifest themselves into long walks and more nerdy research.

Crown Heights is absolutely full of these feelings. A neighborhood most concisely put as Brooklyn for Brooklyn’s sake, walking through Crown Heights is a lovely, calming yet stimulating experience.

Situated comfortably between

Washington Ave. and Howard Ave. on the West and East, as well as Atlantic Ave. and Empire Blvd. to the North and South, Crown Heights borders the northwest corner of Prospect Park.

Crown Heights has a tumultuous demographic history that began as the neighborhood became an upscale destination for Manhattan’s upper-class to reside in their second properties in the 19th century. During this time, the neighborhood held the luxury of underground subway lines, as opposed to elevated transportation, as was normal for much of Brooklyn at that time.

Toward the early 20th century, more upper-class residences were built along the neighborhood’s central drag of Eastern Parkway.

Its collective affluence reached a height in the 1920s.

Later in the 20th century, Crown Heights became nearly exclusively white, with a majority of the white population being Jewish. Towards the 1960s and 1970s, the neighborhood rapidly increased its Black population, as suburban migration fueled by the recent G.I. Bill sent many white families out east to Long Island, an opportunity severely limited for Black people through exclusive legislation. The Hasidic Jews of the neighborhood stayed put and have continued to make

up the staunch majority of the neighborhood’s white population, despite being in the face of current increasing gentrification.

After the destruction of nearby Ebbets Field for public housing in 1957, the white Crown Heights of old ceased to exist, and the neighborhood became as high as 70% Black in 1970. The legacy of such a racial history is strikingly evident. Eastern Parkway effectively serves as a border between the northern Black enclave and southern Hasidic enclaves of Crown Heights; it’s such a sharp line, acting almost as a border between two separate nations, with no formal security.

West of Nostrand Ave. follows the rules less loosely, housing new-coming gentries and several Park-Slope-wannabes. Franklin Ave. is the restaurant hot spot of the neighborhood, with stellar standouts such as “Chavela’s” and “Joe and Sal’s Pizza.”

Chavela’s is the go-to for specialty cocktails and Mexican fare in a hip environment. Their queso fondito and esquite stand out in the food category, with a loaded list of margaritas that is perfect for upperclassmen.

Joe and Sal’s is a real hidden gem. A classic Brooklyn shop that still takes credit cards and Apple Pay, they serve a Neapolitan-style slice mixed with New York-style

slice, a weird middle ground that they certainly get right for a low, nearly suspicious price.

While the majority of current Rams are neither children nor have them, the two museums best known in Crown Heights are the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Jewish Children’s Museum, with the former billing itself as the first for such a population and the latter boasting an interactive minigolf exhibit.

Now, then, what is that fabric of Crown Heights, and what are its wonderfully unique normalities?

It’s muted row houses instead of flashy penthouses or brownstones. It’s the knowledge that Crown Heights is fragile, and yet in so many ways, isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

It’s Eastern Parkway during rush hour on a winter afternoon. It’s when the traditional colorful garb of African immigrants, long suits, skirts and hats of Hasidim, and business casual office attire of white gentries beautifully clash that I begin to ask myself the resounding question: What’s next for Crown Heights?

COURTESY OF CALEB STINE FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Crown Heights is home to muted architecture and great restaurants.

CULTURE

Page 14

March 22, 2023

Who’s That Kid? | Katie Lussen, FCRH ’24

Fordham Junior’s Journey of Musical Self-Discovery

By SOPHIA FORLENZA ASST. COPY CHIEF

As the lights dimmed over the audience, the lead singer’s shaking, 14-year-old fingertips were slipping over the introductory A chord of Black Sabbath’s “Never Say Die.” There’s no way she could look at all these people. Eyes closed. Wait, no. That wouldn’t work either. She resolved to keep her gaze fixed on the back wall of the Nyack Center above the sea of blurry faces that swayed eagerly before her. She managed to make out her dad’s face in the balcony crowd, making her all too aware of the fact that she would soon be cursing in front of him for the first time in her young adult life. Her heart began beating to the impending doom of a post-show fatherly lecture, thinking of how she could wiggle her way out in the name of artistic freedom. But her tentative plans were interrupted by her best friend’s gentle whisper: “One, two, three, four.”

And suddenly she was backstage. Her and her friends put their instruments down, staring at each other in silence.

Katie Lussen, FCRH ’24, was the first to start screaming.

She put her arms around her bandmates, and they jumped at heights never before seen by such small, wide-eyed high school freshmen. Lussen could barely remember what happened, but she hoped it would all come flooding back in the morning. But at that moment, all she knew was that she had never felt this alive.

And that’s how she still feels now, recalling this memory six years later: “I want to do this forever. I want to do this for the rest of my life.”

Lussen is a communications and culture and English double

major with a concentration in creative writing. She’s also a public relations intern for the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, the treasurer of Fordham’s Ampersand club and a poet in FET’s Black Sheep Poetry performance group. A passionate “Love is Blind” apologist and roommate-confirmed onion-caramelizing master, she also loves hiking and coming up with the world’s most creative and delicious recipes (yes, that is an official award). But music has held a particularly special place in Lussen’s heart.

At six years old, Lussen used to repeatedly play chopsticks on her Disney princess keyboard, which was later replaced with a Casio by the time she was nine. This was also when she started playing the guitar, a three-quarter kid-sized birthday gift that she still uses today. At 11, she started to take music more seriously, teaching herself by watching instructional videos on the Synthesia and Guitar Tabs apps and writing songs in her journal. A year later, she joined the School of Rock program where she received formal training on the guitar until she was a sophomore in high school. She wrote her first single, “In the Air,” as a freshman, nervously sharing her lyrics with her band “Distract the Guards.”

“We played one show and then broke up immediately after,” Lussen giggled after reminiscing on her band’s precious moments. Her friends and the Rockland County, N.Y. music scene have been instrumental in her growth. “That’s what the epitome of music to me is. You write something that you care about, and then you and a bunch of people come together, and it’s just this big feeling of community.”

However, her local music scene had influenced her in other ways, and Lussen now realizes some of

the greater misogynist forces that were also at play. Following the punk and alternative rock style of others in her hometown, Lussen felt pressured to create the same music because there were very few bands with women, and she never felt truly included.

“There would be maybe a handful of girls on the ticket, and there was this expectation that in order for people to take you seriously, at least [in my hometown], you had to write rock music, because what did it matter if you were just another girl playing acoustic guitar?” When she released her first full record “Circle Round the Sun” in 2019, Lussen heard (and will never forget) some truly inspiring words from her male counterparts: “Wow, you’re like, actually really good.”

This is precisely why groundbreaking indie rock artists like Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers are such massive musical inspirations for Lussen. And, of course, Radiohead, even though they’re not women — Lussen rejects social media’s male-manipulator narrative of the band: “They’re not sad, they’re human,” she says underneath her “Kid A” poster.

Lussen put her heart and soul into her first EP, and she’s still extremely proud of that work to this day. She recorded herself playing the guitar, bass, used synthesizers and programmed drums, and she’s self-taught at mixing and mastering. Lussen did every single step of the process. But this emotional and technical vulnerability made her all the more nervous about releasing more of her music.

“When you release a song and give people the power to pick it apart, it’s like, ‘oh my god, are people gonna think I’m good or not?’ But when I put it out, all of those feelings kind of went away and eventually disappeared.”

During her senior year of high school, Lussen was frustrated because she felt she wasn’t growing as a songwriter.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and she had endless time to create again. She began writing more, and her style took a new direction. When she came to Fordham in January 2021, she recorded music with everything that was available to her in the Keating basement: her acoustic guitar, the pianos, her glockenspiel and her microphone, and she released her album “everything will be OK” in fall 2021.

She had finally found an indie folk sound that truly resonated with her. Inspired by the momentum of this self-discovery, she released one of her favorite songs she’s ever written, “New Haven,” in early 2022, where she masterfully combines the

feeling of not being seen as a whole person with fond memories of an inside joke from a high school trip to the Met. Lussen is truly an incredibly beautiful writer, artist and singer.

Lussen’s hard work was rewarded when she was accepted to perform at Tarrytown’s Rock the Hall in fall 2022. After not making the cut as a senior in high school, Lussen finally felt recognized after finding herself in her music. In a wonderfully full-circle moment, the same friend who counted her in during her band’s first show also accompanied her on the piano.

“When I got on stage, I was like, this is exactly where I need to be.” Kadio fans have a lot to look forward to: Lussen has a music video and a new song coming out within the next few months.

Watch out, Bridgers. You have some serious competition.

COURTESY OF KATIE LUSSEN FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Lussen draws inspiration from artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Mitski.

“Promising Young Woman” Uncovers the Realities Women Face

By GRACE CAMPBELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“Promising Young Woman” is a captivating, thought-provoking, and intriguing thriller film that was released in 2020.

The movie follows the story of Cassie (Carey Mulligan) who seeks revenge for a traumatic event related to sexual assault which occurred in her past. To call this a realistic account of a woman’s life might be a bit of a stretch, but there are elements to the movie to which all women in our society can relate to.

As the movie begins we are introduced to Cassie, a bright and ambitious woman who has dropped out of medical school and now works at a coffee shop.

She spends her nights seeking revenge on predatory men who try to take advantage of vulnerable women. She pretends to be drunk at night clubs every night as she marks them down in her

little black book. Her motivation comes from past trauma, and unfortunately her theory is proven right almost every time she goes to the clubs. While she may come off as erratic and even crazy, she is actually complex and emotional, making it easy to empathize with her actions and feel as though she’s justified.

Her plan starts to ramp up as her life gets more complicated.

She meets a guy who is actually kind and treats her well, making her want to move past her trauma. However, she, along with the audience, finds out that not everyone is how they appear, and her plans become more twisted.

At times it can be hard to understand and support her actions, as she takes it to extremes like faking a kidnapping and drugging a friend. However as her plans get worse, the details about why she is so vengeful also get introduced, which only exemplifies the horror of reality so many women face. As the movie ends,

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“Promising Young Woman” teaches valuable lessons about sexual assault.

the result we’re left with is not exactly what was expected, but leaves the audience feelings justified —– without giving too much of the suspense away.

The film delivers a powerful message about sexual assault and the way society responds to it. It exposes the hypocrisy and double standards that exist in our culture, where victims are often blamed and shamed for their experiences.

The movie challenges the audience to rethink their perceptions of sexual misconduct, and to take a stand against it.

The movie is overall a great watch that I would recommend to anyone, perhaps more so to young men who may be unaware of many women’s realities. Even though this movie goes to extremes that are not relatable to everyday life, it still does a great job of showing off the culture of sexual assault that is so often swept under the rug. Women must stand together, and any victim of sexual assault deserves to be heard and believed.

CULTURE

March 22, 2023

Page 15

“Red Moon in Venus” is an Ode to the Act of Loving

By REGINA MILLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

With the release of her fourth album, “Red Moon In Venus,” Kali Uchis is shouting to the world that she is a lover girl. As always, the Colombian-American artist sings in both English and Spanish, bringing an element of uniqueness to her music that separates her from the crowd. The album is infused with beautiful melodies and messages that feel like a warm hug. Despite waiting until after Valentine’s Day to drop it, Uchis made up for any lost time with the content of the music. Even in just the name of the album, “Red Moon In Venus,” Uchis brings us a shimmering and reflective perspective on love, with red being representative of love, the moon often representing femininity and Venus, the goddess of love. The album cover captures these motifs perfectly with an enchanting close-up photo of Uchis glittering with jewels, warm-toned makeup and butterflies in her hair.

She uses these feminine references to nature throughout the album, with inspired songs named “in My Garden…,” “I Wish you Roses” and “Moonlight,” giving the album a mysterious and sultry feel. But although Uchis loves her

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Kali Uchis’ fourth album, “Red Moon In Venus,” is an ode to the act of loving others despite our differences.

flower imagery, the love depicted in “Red Moon In Venus” is not all sunshine and daisies.

The album brings us a representation of love in all its stages and forms; many of Uchis’s lyrics are specific enough to convey her emotions clearly, but nondescript enough that they can be applied to different types of love, whether romantic, platonic or personal.

My two favorite songs on the album are “Moonlight,” which has an alluring, unconfined energy, and “Fantasy (feat. Don Toliver),” featuring a catchy beat that flows nicely with Uchis’ harmonies and

smooth background vocals. Although each song on the album casts a different mood, one thing that can be certain about all of them: they each cultivate a strong feeling one way or another. The range of emotions she covers is very broad, reflective of the range of emotions felt while experiencing love. “Love Between…,” the fourth song on the album, is about Uchis’s expression of emotion in the crush of love, what some might call the “honeymoon stage,” where everything is perfect. In this song, she has deeply poetic lyrics like, “If you take away my air,

how am I supposed to breathe? / Tell me, why would we be here if this ain’t meant to be?” Later, she flips this narrative on its head, for instance in “Hasta Cuando,” when she whispers, “Paint me as the villain if that makes you feel better / Make everyone hate me if that makes you feel better.” The jaw-dropping lyrics she pulls out here make “Hasta Cuando” an unforgettable ballad of revenge, one in which Uchis undeniably has the last laugh in a struggle against a former lover.

Another breakout song from the album is “I Wish you Roses,”

in which Uchis sings about parting from someone but wishing them well. Uchis chose to lead the album with this single, singing, “I wish you roses while you can still smell them.” While the person she is referring to may figuratively be dead to her, she hopes they still receive flowers, or blessings, while they are still literally alive. It is interesting that she chose to start the album with this song, considering that this type of mature, healed state usually comes in the last stage of love, some time after a breakup or falling out. In many ways, though, it envelops the kind of free, unconditional love she hopes to give to others, regardless of their differences or history.

This desire is evident throughout the album and rooted in deeply personal reasons for Uchis — in “Moral Conscience,” she includes the line, “I guess I was just lookin’ for the love no one’s showed me in my childhood.” It is obvious that Uchis drew inspiration from the scars of her loves past to produce a fantastical, thoughtful album that is ultimately about healing after heartbreak.. “Red Moon In Venus” is a beautiful tribute to love in all its forms and exactly the kind of message the world needs right now: we must love each other despite our differences.

Restocking Your Pantry Post-Break

By KARI WHITE CULTURE EDITOR

As I said at the beginning of this column, feeding yourself is hard. However, buying food for yourself is harder. Some people make meal plans, writing out all of their meals at the beginning of the week and buying the ingredients needed to make them. Others meal prep, making the food that they’re going to eat throughout the week and storing it in their refrigerator.

I applaud both of those types of people, who have the thoroughness and knowledge to intuit what they might want to eat over the course of the next five to seven days. Unfortunately,

I am in the third category of people: the clueless.

When I was growing up, I was fortunate enough to have my mother make the vast majority of my meals and do most of the grocery shopping. As I have grown more and more independent, the demands of that labor have become far more apparent. While my mother might be able to plan meals for the next few nights, I find it hard to think past the next few hours. My mom’s knowledge was not innate but learned over time. By trial and error over months, years, even decades.

Hopefully, this article will save you at least a few of those decades if not more.

Let’s begin with two words: pantry staples. The pantry houses all of the dry ingredients that one might have in their kitchen, and while it traditionally refers to a small room or closet, a cabinet can serve perfectly well as a pantry. With pantry staples, the intention is to maintain a constant stock of basic food items that can be utilized in a variety of ways to create a diverse range of dishes. My favorites are oatmeal (which I always have stocked), pasta and canned tomato sauce. These are foods that take a long, long time to go bad, which is why they make such reliable and cost-effective purchases. Every working kitchen should have

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Restocking pantries is an important part of recalibrating after break in order to make life a little easier.

at least a few of these staples, to provide an easy meal for the days when even the thought of planning a meal is unbearable.

For the purposes of this article, let us define the different categories of pantry staples.

The first is carbs, which contain lots of energy and often serve as a hearty base to a dish. Some popular carbs include rice, pasta, tortillas, bread and flour.

Flour is important to have on hand, as with it one can make a variety of baked goods, such as pancakes, bread and cookies.

The second category is protein, which provides the necessary chemicals for muscle growth and repair. The most popular proteins are meat, but as meat spoils quickly it is best kept in the freezer. Of course, there are plenty of varieties of canned meat and fish that one could incorporate into a variety of other dishes. However, beans and lentils provide high levels of protein, and when added can up the nutritional and caloric value of a meal. The third category is canned vegetables, excluding beans due to their previous assignment to the protein category. Tomatoes, corn and various other vegetables come in cans. Many of these can be incorporated into soups and other dishes, adding more flavor and nutritional value.

The fourth and final category is flavoring. What’s food without flavor? What’s life? Keeping olive oil, garlic and a few essential spices near at hand will significantly improve the flavor palette of your meals.

My necessities include olive oil, minced garlic, oregano and cinnamon. I have a few more sauces and spice mixtures, but those are the absolute staples I cannot go without.

Pantry essentials are not only there to provide bland, boring food when you need a quick meal, but to create a cheap base from which you can further experiment. There are plenty of recipes online that describe ways in which pantry staples can be transformed. The Spruce Eats lists tons of different recipes, which include vegetarian chili, fried rice, pasta bean casserole and even chicken vindaloo curry. My personal favorites include making red sauce for pasta from canned tomato sauce, minced garlic and oregano; breakfast tacos from eggs, tortillas, cheese and black beans; and oatmeal, topped with cinnamon, raisins and brown sugar.

With a well-stocked pantry, coming up with meals becomes a whole lot easier. Rather than trying to brainstorm individual meals to last throughout the week, one can focus instead on the best ways to pair items that are conveniently already in their pantries. Not only will it save you stress, it’ll also save you money and likely reduce your carbon footprint as you waste less food. Now, finally, even though this is not exactly a recipe, but only applies to those interested in stocking their kitchen, I would rate the contents of this article…

Difficulty: Walsh Hall

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Page 16

March 22, 2023

“Daisy Jones & The Six”: A Wild Ride Through the ’70s

By RORY DONAHUE SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

If you are a fan of Fleetwood Mac and the ’70s era of music, Amazon Prime’s new show “Daisy Jones & the Six” will fulfill your dreams. With eight of the 10 episodes released, the limited series will wrap the final two-episode drop on March

24. Based on the popular book

by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the show follows the path of two struggling musicians who join together in a creative and tense relationship to build a 1970s era rock band.

At its best, the show is an entertaining journey through the pop culture, fashion and drugfueled rock music production of

COURTESY OF TWITTER

“Daisy Jones & The Six” fictionalizes the drama of ’70s rock’n’roll.

the 1970s. The book caught the eye of Executive Producer Reese Witherspoon and was developed into a miniseries by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, who insisted the actors also had to be credible as musicians and singers. Stars Riley Keogh (Daisy Jones) and Sam Claflin (Billy Dunne) deliver the musical chops. During COVID-19 lockdowns, the artists practiced playing instruments and training with vocal coaches, breathing life into their roles. While many viewers have been surprised by how well the music comes together, there might have been some genetic help with Keough, the granddaughter of rock and roll icon Elvis Presley.

Music is the reason to stream the show — it captures the ’70s California pop-rock anthems reminiscent of the top bands of that era like The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby. Distinguished by a driving rhythm section and layered with organs, soaring melodies and crisp harmonies, the show’s songs capture that era’s unique southern California spirit. The soundtrack has already struck a note with modern music lovers, with the show’s companion album “AURORA” reaching number

one on Apple Music after its release on March 3.

Popular composer Blake Mills scored the series, with help from hit songwriters Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), Phoebe Bridgers, Jackson Browne and Madison Cunningham.

The tight soundtrack was recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, which serves as the fictional backdrop for some of the pivotal scenes in the series. The show also detours into some of the other budding genres of the ’70s, with the character Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be) branching off to the New York disco scene, and tunes by punk music pioneers Patti Smith and The Jam are woven into the sound.

But at the heart of the show is rock and roll.

In comparison to the hit novel, the show honors the book in a lovely way and builds on the characters which adds to the plot. While there are some differences in the plot of the show, the only significant character change was with Teddy Price.

The book describes him as a fat and ugly British man in a suit.

While in the show, he is played by actor Tom Wright and takes on the role of the father figure

producer of the band. Neustadter had told people they drew inspiration from storied producers Quincy Jones and Tom Wilson.

While there are still two episodes left in the series, there is a lot to love and parts to critique from the series. The show is well produced from the soundtrack, the costumes and the performances by the actors. However, I find a few of the band’s members underdeveloped in the show, such as Eddie, Karen and Warren. Although they are pivotal in producing the music of the show, they do not get much spotlight and lack the creative writing that is put into Billy and Daisy. The compelling essence of the show comes from the loving and fierce relationship between the lead singers that evolves as they gain success.

“Daisy Jones & the Six” might not capture all that went into the era of 1970s music or have the most effective storyline, but it holds much creativity and passion in the making of the artistic elements that reflects the nature of Hollywood’s biggest names. If you are at all interested in music or read the book, I highly suggest you check this show out or stream the album “AURORA” on Spotify or Apple Music.

How the Serbs of NYC Rebuilt Their Home and History

By ANTONI ZLATANOVSKI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Seven years ago on May 1, 2016, Manhattan was faced with what would become one of the most gruesome, tragic fires in the city’s history when the historic Saint Sava Cathedral became engulfed in flames. Upon occurrence, the Serbian community, as well as various residents of New York City, would become traumatized by the damage that the fire had caused. What was once an important historical site and beacon of SerbianAmerican history was turned to ashes and ruin. Originally, it had been ruled that the damages were too great to restore. Over time, however, it was decided that construction would begin to take place on the site.

The cathedral is located on West 25th Street in Manhattan and contains a rich history. Originally, the site was “designed in 1850 by celebrated architect Richard M. Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style” and was consecrated in 1855. In 1865, an extraordinary historical event took place on the site when for the very first time in history, an Orthodox liturgy was held in an Episcopal church in America.

The New York Times described the event as “an unusual historic happening.” What’s more, the famous American writer, Edith Wharton, writer of various books relating to the upperclass New York “aristocracy” and first female Nobel-Prize winner, married socialite Edward Wharton in 1885 in Trinity Chapel.

Later in her life, she would go on to make the church famous through her well-known novel, “The Age of Innocence.”

In 1915, parishioners began to relocate farther north and the cathedral essentially suffered a loss of attendance. In 1942, the Trinity Cooperation opted to sell their Trinity Chapel to the Serbs.

Originally, the Serbs planned to purchase a fire-damaged building on 22nd Street, where they planned to build their church, separate from the Trinity Chapel.

While the church was being built, Father Vojislav Gacinovic held the first Serbian liturgy in the offices of the “Serb Benevolent Society” in Hartley House on 46th Street. Eventually, another Serbian religious official, Reverend Father Dusan Shukletovic, would arrive in the United States at a time when the Serbian community was building their social and religious life in New York City. This is when “Episcopal Bishop William Manning of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on 116th Street, offered the Serbian people space in the Cathedral, rather than having to repair the fire-damaged building, where services were held until the purchase of Trinity Chapel.”

At first, the premises were also offered to the Russian and Greek Orthodox communities.

However, it was ultimately decided that it would be sold to the Serbs for multiple reasons.

First off, the Serbian people had no church on the east coast of the United States. Secondly, the project was backed by the support

of King Peter II, who ruled over the original Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Lastly, St. Bishop Nikolai had a long-standing relationship with the Anglican Church of England, who had particularly close connections with Bishop Manning and Canon Edward West. Ultimately, the cathedral was purchased with furnishings for $30,000.

One of the most notable features of the Saint Sava Cathedral was its stunning mosaic iconography. The cathedral is adorned with over 40,000 square feet of mosaics, which depict scenes from the Bible and the lives of various saints. These mosaics were created by the renowned Serbian artist Branko Radicevic, and they are a testament to the beauty and grandeur of the Orthodox Church. The interior of the cathedral is equally impressive, with its high vaulted ceilings and ornate decorations.

The altar was adorned with intricate carvings and gilded decorations, and the walls were lined with beautiful icons and frescoes. The cathedral also features an impressive pipe organ, which was installed in 1955.

On June 11, 1944, the Cathedral was formally consecrated and featured various important figures such as Bishop Manning, Canon West, Father Frederick Fleming, the last Episcopal priest to serve in Trinity Chapel, and Constantin Fotic, a Yugoslav Ambassador in exile. Since then, the Saint Sava Cathedral has played an important role in the Serbian-American community. As a whole, the church is

not only a place of worship, but also a cultural center that hosts a wide range of events and activities throughout the year, including lectures and exhibitions.

The site attracted Serbs from all over the world and even hosted refugees and immigrants from Yugoslavia. worked to preserve Serbian culture, tradition and language.

As a result of the 2016 fire, the Serbian community hosted mass at various locations such as the Saint Eleftherios Church in Manhattan until Feb. 5, 2023, when the Serbian community gathered for mass at Saint Sava for the first time in almost a decade, marking the reopening of the cathedral. The mass was hosted by Živojin Jakovljević, Ph.D., and Reverend Milan Dragovic, with a special visit

from the Patriarch Irinej of Serbia.

Regardless of the struggles, the Serbian people have shown their strength and resilience through the most difficult of times. I myself, am also proud to be a member of the Saint Sava community and as a member of the Serbian diaspora.

Unfortunately, the construction is still not finished, as the site is still covered in scaffolding.

Moreover, the interior still is not furnished and mostly consists of cement. In the future, however, the cathedral plans to continue its construction to restore the site to its former beauty. The Saint Sava community also plans on continuing to host cultural and educational events and will serve as a historic bastion of the Serbian community for generations to come.

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The Saint Sava Cathedral opens its doors seven years after a horrific fire.

CULTURE

March 22, 2023

Page 17

Editor’s Pick | Television

A Love Letter to the City of Brotherly Love

By JAMISON RODGERS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Whenever I mention the city of Philadelphia to anyone who is not from the city or connected to this metropolis in some way, I can almost guarantee the reaction it will elicit. Normally, this reaction falls along the lines of some sort of negative generalized comment about the city. The most common reaction is a simple, but effective “I hate Philly,” or another classic “Philadelphia fans are the worst.” However, what I also found is that many people will make these negative assessments about Philadelphia without ever having visited the

city. This snap judgment is based solely on the stereotypes that remain prevalent in the discourse around Philadelphia.

Now, is it a fair assessment to claim that Philadelphia fans tend to feel very passionately about their sports teams which may lead to an overzealous showing of support? Maybe. Is it fair to label Philadelphia as the worst simply due to its gritty exterior? No. Growing up, I would travel up to Philadelphia frequently to visit my family as both my parents were from the area and it was through these visits that I fell in love with the city. It is bursting with character, history and grit.

The people I met were some of the friendliest, albeit a little gruff, but this tends to be characteristic of the demeanor of most northeastern cities. I hated that people had these misconceptions of what Philadelphia was like and wanted them to really understand the true nature of the city.

This wish has come to fruition through the ABC television series “Abbott Elementary.” This show is set in a Philadelphia public school and focuses on a six person ensemble cast of teachers trying to help their students succeed. This show casts Philly in the positive light I always hoped would shine on this city.

Other forms of media have

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“Abbot Elementary” shows the bright, lovable side of Philadelphia, a city famous for its belligerent reputation.

tried to portray Philadelphia in varying ways. Who could forget the classic scene from “Rocky” where Sylvester Stallone ran up the Philadelphia Art Museum steps or Will Smith’s song “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” More recent portrayals of this beloved city include the show “Mare of Easttown” and the movie “Silver Linings Playbook.” While these last two examples include references to beloved Philadelphia institutions such as Wawa and the Eagles, “Abbott Elementary” stuck out in a different way for its representation of Philly. The love of this city is more in the details, in the everyday aspects that may go unnoticed but are what make the city so unique.

The cast of characters is the first way the show achieves this positive portrayal. Quinta Brunson, the creator, showrunner and actress on the show, as well as a West Philadelphia native, has filled this mockumentary sitcom with character types easily found within the city of Philadelphia.

One of my personal favorites is Melissa Schemmenti, played

by Lisa-Ann Walter, whose character was born and raised in South Philadelphia, the Little Italy of Philly. For me, the South Philly influences coming out of Walter’s character is reminiscent of my own family’s South Philly roots.

The rivalries over who makes the best Sunday gravy (aka red sauce), the bonds of familial loyalty and the causal utterance of the phrase “I know a guy” in an effort to save some cash.

The inclusion of hallmarks of the city are also part of creating a real connection to the city through the show. These include events such as the Philadelphia Flower Show, a tailgate for an Eagles game in the school parking lot and even Gritty making a special guest appearance. Other inclusions specific to Philly are the displays of mural-art typically found on school walls in the city as well as many mentions of cheesesteaks. These aspects and many more are what brings the city of Philadelphia to life and makes the setting a foundational part of the show.

To love the show and the characters is to love Philly.

“Abbott Elementary” truly is a love letter to the city of Brotherly Love. It captures the grit and passion Philadelphians have for their city as well as the love and allegiance for their hometown. With the massive popularity the show has garnered as well as its sweep during awards season, perhaps now when I mention the city of Philadelphia, I’ll be met with the more positive response that this city has duly earned.

Diversity Wins at the 95th Academy Awards

By NICOLE DIPIETRO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Award season came to a close on Sunday, March 13 with the 95th Oscars hosted by Jimmy Kimmel honoring the marvelous films that came out last year. Winners are chosen through an intricate process and rigorous voting cycle from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Winning this award is a huge accolade for an actor, director, composer or anyone else who dedicates their hard work to the art of filmmaking.

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert has dominated this year’s award season. Getting recognition from all over the industry, like the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Critic’s Choice and, of course, the Academy Awards. Out of the 11 nominations picked up, the sci-fi multiverse film won seven of their categories, including four out of the five biggest awards of the night: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress awarded to Michelle Yeoh, Best Supporting Actress awarded to Jamie Lee Curtis and Best Supporting Actor awarded to Ke Huy Quan. Many were disappointed to see Curtis win in a cast full of Asian actors, especially when co-star Stephanie Hsu, who delivered such a terrific and emotional performance in the film, was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

However, coming from this slew of awards came one of the best acceptance speeches I’ve ever seen. Quan’s incredibly emotional reaction while winning the award for Best Supporting Actor left me and thousands of other viewers in tears. Jumping up and down while hugging his cast mates and taking the stage with tears in his eyes, Quan’s exclamation “Mom, I just won an Oscar!” was the most heartwarming speech to come out of the ceremony.

Tailing close behind “Everything Everywhere All At Once” was Netflix’s German war flick “All Quiet on the Western Front’’’ and the story of two Irish best friends in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” both getting nine nominations each. “All Quiet on the Western Front” took home four awards that night, including Best Original Score, Best International Feature Film, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Unfortunately, the Irish drama-comedy didn’t take home any Oscars, but it was recognized by the Golden Globes, BAFTA awards and other industry honors.

The award for Best Actor was widely discussed on the internet leading up to the ceremony. Many thought the shoo-in winner would be Austin Butler for his portrayal in “Elvis” or Colin Farrell for his role in “The Banshees of Inisherin.”

However, the Academy presented the award to Brendan Fraser, who played the lead role in Darren

Aronofsky’s “The Whale.” He accepted the honor with another teary-eyed speech of the night, exclaiming, “So this is what the multiverse looks like!” Nominated alongside Butler, Farrell and Fraser was Paul Mescal for his heart wrenching performance in “Aftersun” and Bill Nighy for his work in “Living.”

The ceremony featured performances by all of the Best Original Song nominees. Lady Gaga took the stage with a very raw performance of her song “Hold my Hand” from the Best Picture nominee “Top Gun: Maverick.” Wearing no makeup and just a plain t-shirt and jeans, Gaga’s solo was a beautifully meaningful performance for her. Another notable performance was given by Rihanna, where she sang the ballad “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

She stood in the middle of a beautiful stage design and wore a shimmery black mesh get up. Another extremely fun and spunky performance was a song from “RRR” titled “Naatu Naatu.” This exhibition included an entertaining dance number and ended up taking home the Oscar for Best Original Song.

The in memoriam tribute to the industry’s losses this past year was done by Lenny Kravitz, as he sang his song “Calling All Angels.”

The not-so-red red carpet this year had few standout looks. Many women, like Mindy Kaling, Zoe Saldana and Gaga, took part in wearing different styles and incorporations of the corset trend.

Others went with extravagant ball gowns, like Cara Delevingne, Nicole Kidman and Michelle Yeoh. The men stuck to their usual all black suits, with few exceptions from Harry Shum Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Mescal.

My personal favorite looks of the night came from Rihanna’s carpet look, a black mesh gown showcasing her baby-bump, and Ana de Armas in a glittering sequin-encrusted silver gown.

Many people still wonder why, today in 2023, there are still gendered categories at the Oscars.

The answer is unfortunately simple. Even with the plethora of talent in Hollywood, there will always be a bias benefitting men, white men specifically. The continuation of gendered categories

gives women their own time to shine and be recognized for their work when they could otherwise be overlooked simply because of their gender or race. This year specifically was seen as such a win for the Academy because of its recognition of “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” An emotional film about the AsianAmerican experience with a cast packed full of brilliant Asian actors getting the amount of attention it did was a big step for diversity within the industry. In fact, Yeoh was the first ever Asian woman to be awarded the Oscar for Best Actress. In the future, it is my hope that this trend continues, and we stop systematically overlooking outstanding talent because of race or gender.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

The 95th Oscar winners were some of the most diverse in their history.

CULTURE

Page 18

March 22, 2023

Rams Roaming Around the World

By LILLIAN VERDI

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I enjoyed five days in London with my parents for spring break.

After catching up on sleep, our first stop was Buckingham Palace.

Along the way, we ate fish and chips at Davy’s Wine Bar and stopped at London’s oldest bookstore, Hatchard’s. The guards and statues made for wonderful photos. We headed to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and stopped in Trafalgar Square, where we observed teachers and National Health Service employees on

strike. Tuesday, we traveled to Camden on the Tube (London’s subway) since the railway workers would be on strike the rest of the workweek. Tents filled the Market, selling everything from brightly colored jackets to various soccer jerseys. We had Indian food by the river from one of the many street vendors.

Wednesday was my favorite day. My parents and I walked two miles to the Tower Bridge on a path along the Thames River.

From the top, we apprehensively peered through the glass floor.

That night we enjoyed a Guinness

at a local pub, a London pastime.

We spent our last day meandering through Windsor Castle, marveling at the royal family’s ornate collection of art and artifacts. Afterward, we drove to Richmond to see the set of Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso,” as we are big fans. We walked down the street where Ted lives and got lunch at the pub where many scenes were filmed.

Friday, we hopped on a plane back to NYC with many souvenirs in tow. To make a great trip even better, I sat next to a kind older man who could be the doppelganger of Carl from “Up!”

COURTESY OF LILLIAN VERDI FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

In London, one can visit many cultural sites, including Ted Lasso’s set.

Cancun, Mexico has fantastic beaches, great tacos and tons of lizards.

For my spring break, I went to Cancun, Mexico with a group of friends. It was one of the best vacations I have ever been on and was a much-needed break.

Our flight was delayed three hours and got there significantly later than expected. However, we wasted no time and started off strong with karaoke on the

first night. Everyday was sunny and the perfect weather to swim in the ocean without getting cold. It was the bluest beach I have ever been on and spent the majority of my time there in the water. We were also delighted at the plethora of lizards and iguanas that were found everywhere around the hotel.

A highlight from the trip was on the last day, we ventured off the resort territory into town and

pool, and cruising for the morning on the Pacific Ocean. With crystal clear and refreshing water washing ashore in the tropical paradise it is the perfect destination for swimmers and snorkelers alike. Cabo is the perfect spot for a spring break destination with activities such as jet skiing, whale watching, snorkeling and zip lining adventure courses. For fans of tacos, this is a food haven for you. I had some of the best

shrimp tacos of my life in Cabo, and for those looking for an affordable option, there are several late night, cheap eat taco stands around the city. If you plan on taking this trip for a future spring break, you can look forward to making new friends from the west coast and Texas who are also on their college spring break. Being back in the icy cold of New York is making me miss the sunshine and sea air of Cabo.

At Cabo San Lucas, Mexico one can bask in the sun and nature’s beauty.

By CLAIRE KRIEGER DIGITAL PRODUCER

COURTESY OF CLAIRE KRIEGER/ THE FORDHAM RAM

By JAMISON RODGERS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

I traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for spring break. My friends and I touched down in the sunshine paradise on the Baja California Sur peninsula to escape the frozen tundra of New York and absorb some much needed vitamin D. We got some much needed R&R after midterm season on the beach, by the

By KARI WHITE CULTURE EDITOR

COURTESY OF KARI WHITE / THE FORDHAM RAM

Libson, Portugal offers a world of history, color and great food.

In order to visit our roommate studying abroad in Rome, my friends and I spent spring break in Lisbon, Portugal. After a delayed flight and 12 hours too many in the Azores, we made it to our Airbnb in the heart of Lisbon. We spent the week climbing the many hills of the city, visiting flea markets,

found Surfing Burrito, a restuarant. We found out that Guy Fieri had actually been there, so naturally we had to have lunch. They were by far the best tacos I have ever had in my life. The trip was spent on the beach, either lounging around tanning, swimming or making friends with other random spring breakers. Even though we returned with some intense sunburns, it was worth it for the memories made in Cancun!

COURTESY OF JAMISON RODGERS / THE FORDHAM RAM

castles and a myriad of little bakeries that each sold Portugal’s signature pastry, pastel de nata. On Wednesday, we took a day trip to the Cascais, a city famous for its beaches. On Thursday, a few of us ventured into the town of Sintra.

Famous for its castles, manors and being a UNESCO World Heritage site, the town had so much to do. We visited Pena Palace, which was first renovated from

a monastery into a palace in the 18th century. From its terraces, we could see the next stop on our visit: the ninth century Moorish ruins that crowned the neighboring hilltop. It was fascinating to explore the history of this region, as it is the second oldest city in the world and has been dominated by such different cultures. While my bank account’s a bit sore, this was a trip I will always remember.

Netflix’s Latest Season of “You” Is a Satisfying Ending

By JULIET MCALEE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After a month-long break, the critically-acclaimed and popular Netflix thriller “You” dropped the last batch of episodes for its fourth season on March 9. “You” follows Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), a man whose outwardly charismatic personality hides an obsessive and depraved nature.

Joe is a stalker and a killer whose obsession with various women and the prospect of being loved has left a bloody trail behind him.

Despite his unhinged ways, Joe has a part of him that strives to be good and to stop killing.

Part one diverged from the series formula by having Joe swear off stalking and murdering after suddenly realizing the damage he has caused after the events of the previous season with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), whom he tracks down in Europe. Joe relocates to

London and works as a literature professor under the alias Professor Jonathan Moore. Ingratiating himself amongst an odious group of the uber-wealthy and pursuing a new love interest in Kate Galvin (Charlotte Ritchie), things seem to be going swimmingly for Joe. That is until he is blackmailed by an anonymous murderer known as the Eat the Rich Killer, who targets the group, thereby threatening Kate.

Though the whodunit structure of part one was entertaining in bits and pieces, I found the first part to be slow overall. What also did not interest me much was how the writers seemed to be constructing a redemption arc for Joe. Such a plot change would undercut the critique the series makes on the links between privilege, obsession and violence in society. Much of this is embodied in Joe, a violent man who has yet to be held culpable for his

crimes because he is not seen as a threat by society, a testament to his privilege of being a straight white cis man. “You” has been consistent in its commentary, so the first part seemingly presenting him in a positive light did not sit well with me.

As a result, I was skeptical going into part two, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the writers had foregone a redemption arc. Early on, it is established that Joe turning over a new leaf was a red herring. Part two contains all the twists and turns that part one held back, dropping the whodunit structure for a depiction of how Joe’s tired charade as the lovelorn good guy who only kills when necessary is coming to an end.

Part two picks up with Joe vowing to bring down the Eat the Rich Killer, revealed to be the equally deluded Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers). Because of his anonymity, and to build the hype

around the big reveal, Rhys was absent for much of part one. After being upped to a main character role in part two, it is clear that his performance was worth the wait. Speleers is delightfully sinister as Montrose, who torments Joe to a fault as Badgley exhibits another masterful performance as the character. Much of the magic of season four’s second half can be found in the dynamic between Speleers and Badgley as two sides of the same blood-soaked coin. Rhys is a cool and calculating killer juxtaposed neatly with the more erratic and quasi-moralistic Joe, who seems bent on letting go of killing for good despite being constantly reminded of his dark nature by Rhys. Theirs is an interesting pairing that rivals that of Joe and Love (Victoria Pedretti), Joe’s dead wife who was also a killer.

The success of part two can be attributed to several other

actors’ performances as well.

Kate’s character was fleshed out more as we see her reckon with the state of her independence under the thumb of her powerful and connected father Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear). This development thankfully gives Ritchie more material to work with and more of an opportunity to display her knack for hiding inner turmoil behind dry humor. Gabrielle reprises her role as Marienne Bellamy with a welcomed gusto. Amy-Leigh Hickman is also endearing in her role as Nadia, Joe’s literature student who is goodhearted and too inquisitive for her own good.

The second part of the fourth season of “You” proves to be a satisfying continuation of the thriller.

The ending introduced an intriguing development in Joe Goldberg’s story and characterization that will lend itself readily to what is to come for an even scarier fifth (and reportedly, final) season.

SPORTS

March 22, 2023

Women’s Basketball Ends Season With WNIT Split

By COLIN LOUGHRAN STAFF WRITER

All good things must come to an end, and after a WNIT appearance defined by tenacity, the Fordham Women’s Hoops season has officially come to a close.

Within a span of less than 10 days, the Rams received a WNIT bid, defeated Drexel University 73-63 at the Rose Hill Gym and dropped a heartbreaking 78-73 second-round contest to Columbia University on the road to cap off a memorable campaign.

Fordham’s first-round WNIT matchup required a team effort.

The Drexel Dragons received a special performance from graduate guard Keishana Washington during last Thursday’s game. The Ontario native dropped 43 points and also made five three-pointers.

The outing was not particularly surprising as the 5-foot-7-inch spark plug averaged the secondmost points per game in the NCAA this year with a mark of 27.7.

Fordham was propelled by a key first half from senior Anna DeWolfe, and only trailed by five at the break. The veteran guard collected nine points in the half and was even better in the second.

All told, DeWolfe posted a teamhigh 22 points along with three boards and an assist.

The Rams outscored the Dragons 49-34 in the second half thanks to a holistically good team showing.

Specifically, graduate students Asiah Dingle and Jada Dapaa and sophomore Colleen McQuillen all made their mark and helped guide the Rams to victory. Dingle earned 16 points, two rebounds and four dimes. Dapaa grabbed a teamhigh 13 rebounds and scored 12

points. McQuillen enjoyed a fantastic night off the bench that included a career-high 11 points on a furious 4-8 shooting performance from the field. Overall, Fordham’s play as a team was able to outduel a predictably Washington-lead Drexel attack.

Monday’s showdown with the Columbia Lions saw the same kind of teamwork, but featured a less advantageous result. Even though the women in maroon played valiantly, they could not completely move past the Ivy League’s top scoring team.

The Rams battled fiercely in the first half and led at the halfway point thanks in large part to a 19-point second quarter. DeWolfe and Dingle once again led the charge with 21 points and 20 points, respectively.

But, Columbia had more firepower when push came to shove.

Florida native Abbey Hsu provided the Lions with a jolt. The junior guard totaled 20 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. Further, Kaitlyn Davis may have sunk the shot of the game. After the Rams took a one-point lead with 27 seconds remaining, the senior completed a gutsy three-point play on the other end to give the Ivy Leaguers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Fordham Women’s Hoops ends their season with a 19-13 record. Interim head coach Candice Green’s future is unknown, but the WNIT second-round loss marks the end of the road for key staples such as DeWolfe, Downey and Dingle.

Rams Basketball will return, but not before a summer in which change will reign supreme.

Athletes of the Week Launching a walkoff blast in Fordham’s 7-6 win over Fairfield, DeMaria headlined the Fordham offense, slashing .350 with a team high seven RBI as the Rams went 4-2 on the week. After opening up the season with 11 straight losses, DeMaria’s bat helped the Rams turn a corner, winning 7 of their last 10 games.

Overtime: Why the World Baseball Classic is Essential

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

The fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) concluded last night, with Japan taking home the gold medal with a 3-2 victory over the United States in the Championship. The WBC is baseball’s premier international tournament, with stars from all around the world representing their native countries in a 20-team tournament.

By nearly all accounts, this year’s WBC was a resounding success.

Global stars like Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout suited up for their respective countries in a tournament that displayed the intense passion that countries all over the world have for baseball.

Television viewership numbers, attendance and merchandise sales were up massively across the globe from the last edition of the WBC in 2017. Using these metrics, this year’s WBC was the most successful edition of the tournament ever, showing the truly global nature of baseball in 2023.

But there is a subset of fans who continue to rally against the WBC. Last week, New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz tore the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating Puerto Rico’s massive win over the Dominican Republic. The injury was a freak accident, with Diaz playfully jumping up and down alongside his teammates before suddenly collapsing to the floor in agony. This has a huge impact on the Mets, who lose arguably the best closer in baseball and one of the key reasons why the team won 100 games last year.

Some Mets fans, angered at losing Diaz for the entire season, took to social media to blame the WBC for his injury. The tournament was called unnecessary, with people arguing that Major League Baseball is far more important and that players opting to represent their country are doing their MLB team and its fans a disservice by putting themselves at risk for injury.

While I sympathize with the anger of Mets fans (I am a huge fan of the team myself), these criticisms of

HOME AWAY

Anna DeWolfe Senior Women’s Basketball

In a bittersweet send off for the thirdhighest scorer in program history, DeWolfe shined in what may just be her final games as a Fordham Ram. Leading the Fordham offense with 22 points, DeWolfe helped Fordham to a 10-point victory over Drexel, the program’s first postseason win since 2018. She followed that up with a gamehigh 21-point performance that put her deadly three-point shooting on display one last time as the Rams nearly pulled off the upset against the top 50 ranked Columbia

COURTESY OF TWITTER

The WBC means so much for everyone globally, not just MLB fans.

the WBC are both unwarranted and problematic. First, Diaz’s injury didn’t even occur in the context of a game. It was a freak accident that could have happened anywhere, at any time.

To act like players are inherently putting themselves at risk by participating in the WBC is just plain wrong. Players get injured all the time. That’s the nature of baseball.

Also last week, Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo injured his knee and ankle while sliding into second base during a spring training game.

His injury is less severe then Diaz’s, but Nimmo is still expected to miss a few weeks of action.

Nimmo and Diaz play for the same Major League team, and Nimmo’s injury actually occurred during game-action. Yet no Mets fans are calling to cancel spring training. Nimmo is also extremely valuable to the Mets, and losing him to injury will without a doubt have a negative effect on the team.

But the outrage is different, and I don’t think it entirely has to do with the difference in severity of their injuries.

Many of the attempts to discredit the WBC have underlying themes of ignorance in regards to foreign cultures and how important a sport like baseball is to countries around the world. It’s true that Major League Baseball is the premier baseball league in the world, but many of its best players hail from foreign countries. Someone

Wednesday Thursday March 22 March 23

Friday March 24

Men’s Track & Field Women’s Track & Field

Saturday March 25

Baseball

Iona 3 p.m.

Men’s Soccer

Sacred Heart 5:30 p.m.

Marist TBA

Tuesday March 28

St. Bonaventure 12 p.m.

Seton Hall 4 p.m.

Seton Hall 12 p.m.

Women’s Tennis

Women’s Rowing

Monday March 27

Rider Invitational 12 p.m.

Men’s Tennis Softball

Sunday March 26

Rider Invitational 12 p.m.

Golf Each week, The Fordham Ram’s Sports section honors two athletes for their on-field performances as their “Athletes of the Week.”

like Ohtani, who is a once-in-ageneration type player, rarely gets to compete in his native Japan. The WBC allowed him to do that, and you could see how much it meant to Japanese people.

Stadiums in Japan were electric as Ohtani got the opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd that was united under one flag. The same can be said for the WBC action that occurred in Miami, with the city’s large Dominican and Puerto Rican populations coming out to support their respective teams.

Thinking only about your favorite MLB team and not being able to recognize the importance of the WBC to millions of international baseball fans is an extremely U.S.centric view that shows no regard for the rest of the world. Injuries are a part of sports, and yes, injuries have occurred and will continue to occur at the WBC. That’s not a good enough reason to get rid of a competition that is so beneficial to the continued global development of baseball.

Japanese people deserve to see Shohei Ohtani suit up for Japan just as much as Mets fans deserve to watch Edwin Diaz take the mound in the ninth inning. It’s unfortunate that both won’t occur in 2023, but the WBC is certainly not the thing to blame.

Varsity Calendar

Peter DeMaria

Graduate Student Baseball

Page 19

Jesuit Invitational

12 p.m.

Connecticut 1 p.m.

Seton Hall 1 p.m.

Hartford 3 p.m.

SPORTS

Page 20

The 2022-23 Men’s Basketball Season Debrief

By THOMAS AIELLO ASST. SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

After expectations were set relatively low in the preseason poll coupled by a number of gaps left behind from the 2022 team, Fordham Men’s Basketball defied all odds this season with a 25-8 overall record and earning a double bye in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament.

Without question, this was Fordham’s best season as an A-10 team and their first 20plus win season since 1991. For the first time in a long time, teams didn’t want to come to “Rose Thrill” to play against the Rams with the newly revived student section.

All thanks in large part to two people: Director of Athletics Ed Kull and Head Coach Keith Urgo. Both see what the potential of the program can be. They have a blue collar attitude about them and have cultivated a relationship between the student body and the players.

Take for example the ticket sale before the semifinal game against La Salle, where Kull bought as many tickets as humanly possible and slashed the price down from $25 to $10 and covered the rest, just to get students to the Barclays Center.

Administration has done a total 180 with their approach to athletics, especially with men’s and women’s basketball, by making it a point to turn basketball into the premier sport at Fordham University.

It all starts with Keith Urgo, the longtime assistant who got his first real chance to run his own program. Under former coach Kyle Neptune, Urgo felt more like the head coach because of how involved he was with both in-game coaching, recruiting, roster construction and culture building.

The A-10 coach of the year helped evolve Fordham into the hottest ticket in the Metropolitan area. Beyond St John’s, Seton Hall and Rutgers, all the local teams were outdrawn by Fordham. Urgo’s energy is infectious throughout the campus and the gym. Not only can he organize his players and manage a game but he also is the director of the student section while coaching.

He emphasized all year about being a trailblazer to the team and doing something that has never been done at Fordham before. Urgo turned this Fordham team into a legitimate threat in the A-10, not only for one season but for three to four years.

After every home win, he even sends the players to join the students in a celebration moshpit which is easily the coolest part about being at “Rose Thrill.”

Student athletes and the regular students interacting with each other, and feeling like they are a singular community, was an element that was missing for a long time at Fordham. The amount of work that went into

the team’s social media built a bond with the rest of the Fordham community.

It translated into the actual on-court product rather quickly. Fordham ran right through their non-conference schedule, going 12-1 with a key win against Tulane University in New Orleans. The one loss came at Arkansas against the Razorbacks, a team currently in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

Even if Kenpom ranked the schedule as one of the weaker ones in the nation, the Rams took care of their business and won all the games they were supposed to win.

Fordham got off to a rough start in conference play by dropping three of their first four against Davidson College, the University of Rhode Island and Dayton University. They entered a matchup with La Salle University on Jan. 14 in need of a spark.

Urgo did just that at La Salle by inserting freshman Will Richardson and senior Rostik Novitskyi into the starting lineup, which sent Abdou Tsimbila and Darius Quisenberry to the bench for that game to start.

The return on investment paid off in massive proportions instantly: 19 points from Richardson and a game winner from Charlton to spark what would be a dominant run for the Rams. They went on a huge five game winning streak capitalized by upsetting the first place Saint Louis University Billikens at home.

Fordham closed out their season winning three of their last four and totaling 12 A-10 wins, the most ever in program history.

The curtain call for “Rose Thrill” continued at the A-10 tournament at Barclays Center with an opening round matchup against La Salle again.

With over 1,500 students and even more alumni behind them, Fordham was able to overcome a porous performance from the charity stripe and pulled away with a win and for their second appearance in the A-10 semis ever.

Unfortunately, the Dayton Flyers had other plans in mind and ended the season with a 78-68 win over Fordham in the semifinal.

Following the game, the team went over to their loyal (and crazy) fans to thank them for their support all season long.

It was especially emotional for the graduating players because of what they were able to experience in their final season.

961 career points at Fordham for Darius Quisenberry, a second team all-conference selection and a spot on the NABC second team all-district were the honors he took home this season. He is a main focal point of the drastic program turnaround.

And how about Khalid Moore?

In a singular season he blossomed into a lead option on an elite team.

He was a role player at Georgia

March 22, 2023

Varsity Scores & Stats Women’s Basketball WNIT Fordham 73 Drexel 63

Baseball Fordham Wagner

10 7

Fordham 11 Tech which helped capture an ACC title and a berth in the NCAA Lafayette 1 Fordham 73 tournament. He hit 1,000 career Columbia 78 points, made all-conference third Fordham 4 team and was named to the A-10 Fairfield 9 all tournament team.

Women’s Tennis Rostik Novitskyi, though a Fordham 4 gentle giant, asserted himself 7 UC Riverside 1 Fordham many times this year especialFairfield 6 ly once he joined the starting Fordham 1 lineup.

Take for example six blocks 0 CSUN 4 Fordham against La Salle in the tourFairfield 5 nament, or being one of three Fordham 1 Rams to score 14 against Rhode 16 Cal State Fullerton 4 Fordham Island at home, or what about his 19 point performance off Siena 5 the bench at Tulane? That’s the Men’s Tennis beauty of role players: they step Fordham 6 Women’s Track up in big spots and Novitskyi Stony Brook Classic Hardin-Simmons 1 did that in more ways than one.

But for the rest of the players, NTS (No Team Scoring) it was a “see you soon” moment.

Fordham 5 And with Urgo signing an extenSo. New Hampshire 2 Men’s Track sion through 2027-28, the futuStony Brook Classic re is brighter than ever.

Anticipate the coaching staff Fordham 3 NTS (No Team Scoring) to have a good chance of keeping LIU 4 everyone on board, especially players like Kyle Rose, Abdou Softball Tsimbila and Antrell Charlton, –Compiled by Maddie Bimonte who will be next year’s seniors.

Fordham 0 This year’s freshmen will most Wagner 9 certainly retain control of the outlook of the team, and it starts with Will Richardson.

Richardson needs to become what Kam Jones was this year for Marquette University as a second-year player: take the quMSG Networks to Telecast Fordham University antum leap and lead the team in Baseball and Softball this Spring scoring as a sophomore.

Getting freshman Angel Montas healthy and ready to MSG Networks and Fordham University have recently pair with Richardson is what announced a broadcasting partnership for the 2023 seawill be dependent on the team’s son. With an upcoming 20 features from MSG Network, future. Also keep an eye out for the Rams will be on the mainstage of broadcasting for mulcurrent freshman Romad Dean tiple Atlantic 10 battles. The first softball broadcast will be and Elijah Gray to take jumps March 26 against St. Bonaventure University, while the men next season as well, especially are already underway with their first broadcast having been with Gray in the paint. against Fairfield University last week.

With the ever-changing transTicket Deposits Available for 2023-24 fer portal, there will be a plethora of talent available for Fordham to Basketball Season land. Expect them to be aggressive in their pursuit to fill holes After a historic season at Rose Thrill, fans looking to secure left behind by graduating talents. a chair back seat for all Fordham men’s basketball games at the To reiterate, anticipate the team Rose Hill Gym in 2023-24 will have two options: $500 for the keeping everyone in the Bronx for lower level (sections 102-105, 111-114) and $450 for the balcony another go-round. (sections 201-206, 210-215). For the 2023-24 women’s basketThe non-conference schedule ball season, fans can secure a courtside season ticket for the low does have to improve next year price of $150.

General admission season tickets are also availeven if the team is getting youngable for $100.

A deposit of $25 is required for each women’s baser. While going 12-1 was great, ketball season ticket. some of the teams Fordham played had fans asking themselves, “They have a basketball program?”

Expect Urgo to challenge his team with some harder games and more traveling. It doesn’t have to be like Monmouth’s schedule where King Rice was playing power six schools every other day, but an effort to mix in games against teams like Penn State, Temple, Princeton, Seton Hall or even Saint John’s now that Rick Pitino is in charge. Perhaps slipping in a game against Rutgers would be beneficial.

All told, this first season under Keith Urgo was magical, historical and fun in every single way.

But remember this: Keith Urgo wants to win. He knows the perfume is poison, and COURTESY OF TWITTER that’s why he and the team Fordham’s 2022-23 season ends as their most successful in recent memory. won’t taste it.

News & Notes

SPORTS

March 22, 2023

Fordham Women’s Tennis Struggles in Recent Weeks

By BRETT TULIP STAFF WRITER

Since March 8, the Fordham women’s tennis team has entered a bit of a rough patch, going 1-4 in their matches in this period. The first match of this two-week stretch began with an immensely impressive performance from the team when they fell to Yale University 4-3.

This is about as high-quality of a loss you can get, which might sound strange. But it is important to note that Yale is nationally ranked and was the #57 team in the country at the time of play. Crushingly, Fordham would play another nationally ranked Ivy League team the very next day and lose to #42 Brown University by the same score of 4-3.

Although Fordham lost both matches, it is crucial to stress the importance of how well they played and how remarkable it was for the program to keep these matches so close. Coach Michael Sowter stated, “Even though we didn’t get the victory, we are playing at a level unseen at Fordham.” This is certainly true, and these two close losses compared to prior Ivy League performances corroborate that. Looking back at the team’s past performances against Ivy League schools, they currently have no victories and now stand at 0-10. However, in the eight previous matches before this recent two match slate, Fordham was shutout in five of them, and lost by a score of 6-1 in the other three.

Although the team fell just short

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham Women’s Tennis has gone cold, losing the last three out of four matches.

against both Yale and Brown, it is noteworthy how they were just out of reach from some of their biggest victories in recent years.

This past weekend, the team traveled during their spring break to California and competed in three different matches against schools in the state. They started with a 4-1 victory against the University of California, Riverside.

This match, including the two in the following days were all played outside, which can be a tough transition for many players who are used to indoor courts. However, in this match, the team seemed largely unaffected as they managed to win thanks to their control in the singles matches.

They won two of three doubles matches and won three of four singles matches.

Similar results unfortunately did not follow, as the exact opposite occurred in their next match against California State University Northridge with Fordham falling 4-1. They struggled to find the

consistency from everyone that they had relied on in previous wins. The sole two wins would come from graduate student Carlota Casasampere Escoda in singles play, and a duo of junior Eleni Fasoula and senior Rachelle Yang in doubles.

Fordham continued to struggle the next day against California State University, Fullerton, as they would lose 4-1. The singles victory came from sophomore Lorraine Bergmann while the only doubles win of the three came from the team of graduate student Valeriya Deminova and senior Avery Aude.

Overall, it is extremely hard for a tennis program to string together multiple wins in a row against a plethora of upper-level talented teams. Because of this, regression could be expected from the start of the year given their increase in difficulty for the Rams schedule.

However, it will be very interesting to see how the team manages to respond and bounce back from a series of tough losses.

By ALLIE COPPOLA

The spring club sports season is in full swing at Fordham, and many teams are off to a strong start as the weather begins to warm up. Both the men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball and hockey teams have been the busiest so far, with more games to come throughout March and April.

After an eventful season, the Fordham’s club hockey team finished out their schedule in the end of February and beginning of March with three games, including a 6-0 loss to Ramapo College, a 12-3 loss to Fairfield University and a 5-3 rematch win against Farmingdale State College. They headed to nationals in West Chester, Pa. at the beginning of Fordham’s spring break. The team played against Liberty University, which resulted in a 3-3 tie, and fell to the University of South Carolina’s club team 4-0. They are looking forward to an exciting season next semester, with a return of players that went abroad this spring.

In an early start to the season, the women’s lacrosse team played games against Marist College and Fairfield University back on Feb. 26. In a nail-biter, the team edged out a win in the first game against Marist, 10-9. After losing to Marist in a close game in the fall, it was an important win for the team and an incredible way

Why Aaron Rodgers Should Stay Far Away From New York

By JOE MASTERS

Strong Starts and Ends for Club Sports Teams STAFF WRITER

Page 21

to start the season. They played Fairfield immediately after, and won the game by a score of 1410. For the Rams, the round robin event at Fairfield proved to be a success, and earned them the ninth ranking in the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Organization (WCLO) league. After a canceled game against Central Connecticut State University, they look ahead to a busy weekend after returning from spring break. Saturday will see them travelling to Stony Brook University and Sunday they will travel to Lafayette College to play second-ranked the home team and Duquesne University.

The men’s lacrosse team opened their season in a home round robin event against both Rutgers University and Columbia University and ended the day with a close loss and a comfortable win.

Despite a valiant effort, they lost to Rutgers with a 7-5 score, but it was business as usual for the team in a 8-2 win against Columbia, a team they usually excel against.

After coming back from spring break, they will travel to Fairfield on Sunday for a highly-anticipated rivalry matchup. They play late into the month of April and have plenty more games to look forward to.

To open their season, the club baseball team completed a threegame sweep of Stevens Institute of Technology on the weekend

of March 4, winning by scores of 5-2, 6-2 and 12-2. Junior Joseph Sullivan and senior Matthew Reddy shined in the weekend series, with two and four hits respectively, and in addition freshman Barrett Spritzer and senior Michael Calamari, each knocked in two runs in the final game. They will try to replicate their success in a three-game series against Adelphi University in their home opener this coming weekend.

Fordham’s club teams have a lot to look forward to this season after strong starts to their schedules. Playoffs and nationals are on the horizon and are a goal for most of the teams here at Fordham. As the weather begins to warm up, Fordham’s club sports teams will try to remain hot.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Club sports are in full swing.

Midway through the 2022-23 season, the New York Jets were scoring impressive wins against Green Bay and Pittsburgh and shocking the league by topping Buffalo at home. They found themselves with a comfortable record of 7-4. Fast-forward to six weeks later and the Jets walked off the field at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami after only mustering six points and finishing the season 7-10, losers of six straight and out of the playoffs for a league leading 12th straight year.

The search for the cause of the Jets collapse starts and ends at one position: quarterback. Second-year quarterback Zach Wilson, dubbed the savior of the franchise from the day he was drafted, was inconsistent on the field and a nuisance off of it. Falling out of favor with the locker room, the Jets then turned to fan favorite Mike White. Although he shined in moments, White sustained injuries and his up-anddown play affirmed his ceiling as a high-level backup. I’ll save you the time of diving into Joe Flacco and just say he’s not the long term answer either.

So now that leaves us looking ahead. With the offseason and free agency in full swing, the Jets have decided on “their guy” being Aaron Rodgers, and he’s now decided that himself.

Last Wednesday, Rodgers took to The Pat McAfee Show to make an announcement on his future in the NFL. “I made it clear my intention was to play and to play for the New York Jets, and I haven’t been holding anything up,” Rodgers said.

Two-time MVP and Super Bowl champion, Rodgers, despite his age, would bring the Jets the most stable quarterback play since “Broadway Joe” Namath some odd 50 years ago. Without a doubt, Rodgers would elevate the Jets offense, providing the team a dynamic element at the quarterback position that they have lacked for far too long. Nevertheless, I must say: Acquiring Aaron Rodgers would be a mistake for the Jets. Now before all of “Gang Green” wages war on me for saying that, let’s look at some important factors — factors that Jets fans should know about all too well.

Besides the fact that Rodgers is guaranteed to make nearly $60 million for the 2023 season, much has been documented about the 39-year-old’s ability to mesh with the young receivers he had at his disposal in Green Bay. So much so that 22-year-old rookie receiver Romeo Doubs admitted after the season

that he had never hung out with his QB outside of football. Rodgers’ growing frustration started even before the season began, as he went as far as to publicly criticize his young receivers in training camp.

“We’ve got to be way more consistent,” Rodgers said at the time. “You keep dropping the ball, you’re not going to be out here.”

Resentment became visible as the season wore on, and it was clear that Rodgers was simply not on the same page with his younger counterparts, an explanation for the team’s 4-8 record more than midway through the season. This problem becomes magnified when looking at the plethora of young talent which makes up the core of this Jets offense. 22-yearolds Garrett Wilson and Elijah Moore and 21-year-old Breece Hall will be the main co-stars alongside Rodgers—and all have already shown their limited patience for a lack of accountability at the quarterback position. Further, 23-yearolds Alijah Vera-Tucker and Mekhi Becton will both play key roles in protecting Rodgers if he were to become a Jet. While Rodgers is guaranteed to be an improvement over Wilson and White, with such a young locker room, and especially one that has already shown they are capable of turning on a quarterback, the warning signs are clear as ever.

This all goes without mentioning the 39-year-old’s documented distaste for the NFL media. From anger over media reports of his usage of ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic, to criticism directed towards Ian Rappaport and Adam Schefter over their coverage of his “darkness retreat,” Rodgers certainly won’t get any more breathing room in a New York City environment. As the epicenter of media and even more so in the world of sports, handling and not shying away from the bright lights of New York media coverage will prove tricky for Rodgers, who prefers privacy.

But don’t take my word for it. Giants legend Tiki Barber, who played in New York for nearly a decade, doesn’t believe Aaron Rodgers could handle the intense media scrutiny that comes with suiting up in the Big Apple.

“It just made me start to realize that, if he is that sensitive that he gets upset that people, reporters, opinion-makers, influencers or whoever want to talk about him, he is going to struggle in New York,” Barber said last month.

Regardless, only time will tell whether or not the Packers and Jets can agree to fair compensation for Rodgers, a move that will nonetheless shake up football in New York.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

While we can’t deny Rodgers’ career, he just isnt’t the right fit for the Jets.

SPORTS

Page 22

Men’s Tennis Wins Three of Four

By JOE MASTERS

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Fordham Men’s Tennis faced a flurry of action since students left for spring break starting Saturday, March 11 where they defeated Wagner College 5-2 to snap their four-match losing streak.

On their home courts at the Life Time Athletic Center, the Rams took care of business over the weekend ending their skid and providing some momentum to propel them into the home stretch of their season. The match did not start how the Rams were hoping, however, as they dropped the doubles point to begin play.

“Wagner did a great job winning the doubles point but we never gave up,” said head coach David Slater.

The Rams responded swiftly, showcasing the importance of a veteran presence and the excitement of youth and potential.

Graduate student Quinn Fender and freshman Dhillon VirdeeOakley started off the singles matches Saturday, with both players winning in straight sets.

Fender impressively dominated Wagner’s Rodrigo Perez, 6-0, 6-0.

The Rams secured the win thanks to victories by junior Nicholas Kanazirev (3-6, 6-4, 6-3), freshman John Mascone (63, 6-3) and junior Bingru Chen (6-3, 6-2).

For a Fordham Rams team that has been strong in doubles play but weak on the singles courts this season, Saturday’s win over Wagner signifies growth and improvement for the Rams looking to build off of it going forward.

“This was an excellent win and exactly what we needed heading into our spring break matches,” Coach Slater said.

The wins proved Slater’s confidence right, as the Rams took care of business in Orlando defeating Hardin-Simmons University 6-1, and Southern New Hampshire University 5-2 over the past week.

The team then returned back to New York where they battled, but were unable to overcome Long Island University, falling by a score of 4-3.

Among the rest of the Atlantic 10, the Rams are beginning to climb from the bottom of the conference as they sit at 4-7. Virginia Commonwealth University currently sits comfortably atop the standings with their impressive 12-4 record. For Fordham going forward, they find themselves in an interesting spot of their season.

Looking ahead, the Rams are on the road on Saturday against Sacred Heart University, who are also 4-7 and coming off a win against Wagner College.

For Fordham, this weekend’s matchup should prove to be a strong test for their potential the rest of the season. A win would inch the Rams closer to the .500 mark as the Atlantic 10 playoffs near.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Men’s Tennis has begun to turn the corner as they draw closer to .500.

March 22, 2023

Track and Field Kicks Off Outdoor Season

By LOU ORLANDO ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

After two weeks off, the Rams were back in action to get the outdoor season started at the Stony Brook Snowflake Classic on March 18. While it wasn’t quite the record-setting weekend that closed out the indoor season, Fordham returned home with five individual event wins as the road to the Atlantic 10 Championship set in May officially begins.

Three of the five event wins came on the women’s side.

Graduate student Kathryn Kelly got it started with a win in the long jump, and later earned a second place finish in the 200-meter dash. Freshman Leia Ruvo and junior Skylar Harris grabbed second and third in the long jump, as Fordham claimed the top three spots.

The Rams also finished with the top two spots in the 3,000-meter run and the shot put. Sophomore Madeleine Ryan earned the event win in the 3,000-meter with junior Marin Bogulski close behind, while freshman Tanicha Saintigene and graduate student Casey Metzler took one and two in the shot put, respectively.

Four other Rams added second-place finishes. Graduate student Helen Connolly and freshman Nicole Lytle were

runners up in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter events.

Freshmen Kylie Ritz and Zoe Arakelian claimed second place as well, with Ritz taking it straight up in the 100-meter hurdles while Arakelian tied for second in the high jump. Senior Mary Kathryn Underwood added a top-three finish to the leger, taking third in the 800-meter.

On the men’s side, freshman Liam Volz was single handedly responsible for both of the Rams’ event wins, claiming first place in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. Sophomore Isaiah James earned a secondplace finish in the 400-meter dash. Several other Rams joined the party as junior Thomas Lewis and freshman Trevor Rinn finished third in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter events, respectively.

Freshman George Pomer had a busy day as well, finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles and third in both the long jump and the 110-meter hurdles. Finally, graduate student Zalen Nelson continues to impress, as his third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run made him the top Ram in the event.

The outdoor season continues next Saturday with both the men’s and women’s teams traveling to Lawrenceville, N.J. for the Rider 5-Way Invitational.

Formula 1: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

By MICHAEL HERNANDEZ ASST. SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

Over the weekend, the 2023 Formula 1 season continued as they traveled to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

With 27 turns around the 6.174 kilometer track, Jeddah is the fastest street circuit in the world and with very little room for error, as the smallest mistake could end a driver’s or team’s weekend prematurely. Following their dominant 1-2 performance in Bahrain, Red Bull was looking to continue its title defense. Aston Martin also wanted to continue its fine form after its podium. As for Ferrari, they were looking to bounce back after a mixed result. Heading into the weekend, Ferrari announced that they were changing its control electronics (CE) part on Charles Leclerc, triggering a 10-place grid penalty due to surpassing his CE allocation for the year.

During the practice sessions, the Red Bull drivers of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez topped the timesheets with Verstappen finishing P1 in all three sessions and Perez being no slower than third. When it was time for qualifying, disaster struck for Red Bull. Max suffered a driveshaft failure and qualified 15th, putting Verstappen a long

way back on the grid. Meanwhile, Perez was able to pounce on his teammate’s reliability issue and put his car on pole. Leclerc qualified 2nd but due to the grid penalty, meant that he would start the race in 12th. This promoted the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso into second.

When the lights went out on Sunday, Alonso had an amazing start and snatched the lead from Perez. Unfortunately, the stewards gave Alonso a five second penalty for not being in his grid spot for the start of the race. Perez quickly retook the lead and started to build a gap to Alonso. Meanwhile in the middle of the grid, Verstappen and Leclerc started to make their way through the pack, picking off cars one by one as they rose up the order.

On lap 13, Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll pitted first, with Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz pitting on lap 15. Leclerc then pitted on lap 16. However, seconds after Leclerc emerged from the pits in 8th, Stroll stopped on track and retired from the race due to a car failure. This brought out the full safety car. Every car that hadn’t pitted immediately jumped into the pits and gained a massive advantage due to everyone on the track slowing down due to the safety car.

Perez and Alonso pitted from the

top, with Alonso serving his five second penalty before receiving his new tires. Verstappen massively benefited from the safety car and was able to emerge from the pits in fourth. Meanwhile, Leclerc who had pitted under normal conditions, was now in seventh. The order was Perez leading Alonso, the Mercedes of George Russell was in third with Verstappen in fourth. Sainz was in fifth, with Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth and Leclerc in seventh.

On lap 21, the green flag was shown and the race resumed with Perez retaining the lead from Alonso. Perez started to build a gap to Alonso. Meanwhile, Verstappen was able to pass Russell into third, and Hamilton passed Sainz for fifth. Verstappen was now gaining on Alonso and on lap 25, he passed the Spaniard to make it a Red Bull one-two finish. With the race now halfway over, Verstappen was only five seconds behind Perez as the Red Bull duo started to break away from Alonso. There were some moments when it appeared that Verstappen was reeling Perez in, but Verstappen was on the radio saying that there was a suspected issue with the driveshaft, forcing Verstappen to not push as much as he wanted.

After 50 laps, Perez won the

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Red Bull dominated in Formula 1’s second race of the season.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with an excellent performance with Verstappen finishing second to make it a Red Bull 1-2. Alonso crossed the line third to round out the podium. Russell finished fourth, with Hamilton in fifth, Sainz in sixth, and Leclerc in seventh. It was announced after the race that Alonso did not serve his 5-second penalty correctly and was then issued a 10-second post race penalty, demoting him to fourth and promoting Russell onto the podium. However, after a right of review by Aston Martin, the 10-second penalty was removed, reinstating Alonso to third, giving him his second podium of the year and the 100th podium

in his illustrious career.

Red Bull dominated the race and have started this season with near perfection, grabbing 87 out of a possible 88 points in these two races. Meanwhile, Aston Martin are still second with 38 points. Mercedes are level on points with them but are in third due to Aston Martin having a better race finish with Ferrari in fourth just 12 points behind. As for the drivers, Verstappen is only 1 point ahead of Perez. The next race is in a week and a half as they travel down under to Australia for the Australian Grand Prix. With two races out of 23 in the dust, it is a long season with plenty of time for teams to recover or fall even further behind.

SPORTS

March 22, 2023

Page 23

Student Athlete Column: Analyzing our Competitions Will Make Us Better Athletes

By MARY KATHRYN UNDERWOOD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In track, it seems commonplace that the number one goal when training is to set the runner up for the “Perfect Race.”

This is the race, or sequence of races, where everything clicks.

This is when all the hard work that the athlete has put in, from the big things, like workouts, and the little things, like consistently getting enough sleep, all pay off.

It is usually never an easy road to this point. Even the most experienced athletes make mistakes during competition and have bad days. However, I argue that by using a system to analyze our athletic performances, we can learn from our mistakes faster and become “better” more efficiently.

This analysis system is a method

I started using throughout my senior year of high school. My coach, coach Dupe, would send us a worksheet to complete after every competition. In this worksheet, we were asked to assess three components of our race day routine: prerace, mid-race and post-race.

For the pre-race portion, we were to analyze how well prepared we were for the competition that day. If we didn’t prepare ourselves well by not sleeping or hydrating enough, that could explain a dip in our performance. On the flip side, if we did all of the little things correctly in the week leading up to the race, that could explain why we PR’d.

The mid-race portion asked us to think about how well we competed, both mentally and physically. Thinking about how mentally or physically tough, or not tough, we were during the

race allows us to determine what aspects of the race led to our successes or shortcomings. Additionally, it asked us if we thought about the team during the race, which is vastly important. At the end of the day, track is a team sport, where a team’s success

is made up of all the combined victories of each teammate. By asking if we were thinking about the team during the race, it allowed us to reflect on whether we were running for ourselves or our team.

Lastly, the post-race portion

not only asked us if we properly recovered from the race but about the race as a whole, with the most important question asking if it “was an honest effort.” In other words, did we give our absolute best and leave it all on the course, or did we settle for what was comfortable?

I think that coach Dupe’s system of post-race analysis is not only genius but also something that all athletes could benefit from. It can be easy to settle into bad habits and make them the “norm.” However, by being honest with yourself by confronting these bad habits head-on, it becomes glaringly obvious what needs to be fixed to reach your next goal. Consider it maintenance work: sharpening your perfections and slowly diminishing your errors until you’re ultimately met with the “Perfect Race.”

Champions League Round of 16 Continues

By MICHAEL HERNANDEZ ASST. SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

Over the past month or so, the Champions League continued with the round of 16. As a reminder, the winner of the tie is determined by the aggregate score of the two legs. If the aggregate score is tied after the second leg, extra time and, if needed, penalties are used to determine the winner. Here were all eight ties: Club Brugge vs. Benfica, AC Milan vs. Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia Dortmund vs Chelsea, Paris Saint Germain (PSG) vs.

Bayern Munich, Inter Milan vs.

Porto, Eintracht Frankfurt vs.

Napoli, RB Leipzig vs Manchester City, Liverpool vs Real Madrid.

In the Brugge vs Benfica tie, Benfica stormed to a 2-0 victory in the first leg, setting themselves up for a good chance to advance to the quarter finals.

And in the second leg, Benfica didn’t rest on their laurels and put Brugge to the sword, scoring five more goals in a 5-1 thrashing of Brugge to punch their ticket to the quarter finals with a 7-1 aggregate score.

For the Milan Tottenham tie, it was a clash of seventime champion league winners against a team that has never won it. In the first leg, Milan got off to a dream start and scored within seven minutes,

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Only eight teams remain.

courtesy of Brahim Diaz. Both teams then had multiple chances but were unable to convert any of them. Milan were able to hold onto the win and take the 1-0 lead into the second leg. In the second leg, Tottenham were hunting for the goal to level the score on aggregate. However, the Milan defense stood firm and after 90 minutes, the second leg ended 0-0, meaning Milan passed on the slim 1-0 aggregate.

For the Dortmund vs. Chelsea tie, the first leg saw both teams pressing on the attack. Both teams had excellent chances but to no avail. However in the 63rd minute, Karim Adeyemi collected the ball on his side of the field and scored a wonderful solo goal to give Dortmund the lead. That goal was the difference in the first leg with Dortmund taking a 1-0 lead to the second leg. In the second leg, Chelsea pushed for the equalizer and eventually found it courtesy of Raheem Sterling in the 43rd minute. Shortly after halftime, Chelsea were given a penalty and Kai Havertz stood up to take it. Havertz’s penalty was saved but it was retaken due to encroachment, with Havertz slotting the retake into the back of the net to knock Dortmund out 2-1 on aggregate to advance to the quarter finals.

In the PSG Bayern leg, it was a feisty affair between these two European giants. However, Bayern scored the lone goal in the first leg courtesy of Kingsley Coman. Coman’s goal against his former club gave Bayern a 1-0 lead heading into the second leg. In the second leg, PSG had a golden chance to level the score but were denied by a goal line clearance.

Bayern then scored two goals in the 61st and 89th minutes to win the match 2-0 and advance

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Erling Haaland joins Messi and Luiz Adriano as the only players to score five goals in a Champions League game.

to the quarterfinals 3-0 on aggregate.

As for the other Milan team, Inter faced off against Porto.

The first leg saw both teams trying to break through but lacked that final touch to put it in the back of the net. However, Porto were reduced to 10 men in the 78th minute faced increased pressure. In the 86th minute, Inter finally broke through with Romelu Lukaku to give Inter a narrow 1-0 aggregate lead to the second leg. Porto tried to level the score but were unable to, with the second leg ending in a 0-0 draw and eliminating the Portuguese side from the competition.

In the Frankfurt vs Napoli tie, Frankfurt were left with 10 men in the first leg after a poor challenge from Randal Kolo Muani.

Napoli continued their excellent form and scored two goals to give them a commanding

advantage into the second leg.

In the second leg, Napoli continued their sensational form and scored three more goals to cruise to the quarter finals 5-0 on aggregate.

As for the Leipzig vs City tie, Manchester grabbed an early lead in the first leg and scored in the 27th minute. However in the 70th minute, Leipzig equalized to make it a 1-1 score on aggregate heading into the second leg. However, City thrashed Leipzig 7-0 to easily advance into the quarter finals.

City striker Erling Haaland scored five goals to continue his unstoppable form, scoring 10 goals in the Champions League in only 402 minutes.

Haaland is the third player to ever score five goals in a single Champions League game, joining Luiz Adriano and Lionel Messi in this exclusive club.

In the final tie, it was a rematch

of last year’s final. In the first leg, Liverpool got off to a perfect start, scoring two goals within 14 minutes and looked set on avenging their loss last year.

However, Liverpool imploded as Madrid scored five unanswered goals to win 5-2 on the night and take a stranglehold on the tie. In the second leg, Madrid added a cherry on top by scoring an additional goal to knock Liverpool out of the competition with an aggregate score of 6-2.

As we look towards the quarter finals, here are the upcoming ties: Benfica vs. Inter Milan, Man City vs. Bayern Munich, Real Madrid vs. Chelsea, AC Milan vs Napoli With only eight teams left, the competition is only getting stronger as they all fight for one of the most prestigious club trophies in the world.

Page 24

SPORTS Baseball Takes Three Out of Last Five Games

By MADDIE BIMONTE SPORT S EDITOR

After turning things around, the Rams are swiftly underway in this 2023 season, with all the dominoes starting to fall properly.

After a series win at home against Quinnipiac University, the Rams have finally found the confidence they’ve been looking for.

In their recent five games, they’ve gone 3-2, with there still being some fine tuning to do, but are much stronger than their 0-12 start.

To kick things off, the Rams pummeled Lafayette College to mark their fifth win in their last six games.

The Rams surged right away with sophomore Cian Sahler scoring off of a ground out from freshman Daniel Bucciero. The freshman, putting up a .328 batting average over 19 games this season has largely attributed to the Rams’ success.

The Rams continued to take advantage of errors on the side of Lafayette, allowing one run to score before freshman Tommy McAndrews hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to right field.

Fordham was not done yet as they tacked on four more runs in the following inning courtesy of a walk and yet another Lafayette error.

One of the key pieces to Fordham’s team this year is the strong freshman core they have built, with McAndrews leading the charge. He added a tworun single in the fourth, and the game marked McAndrews season high with runs batted in

with four.

Slowly, runs trickled in until they hit their total for the day of 11. Holding the Leopards to one was the pitching rotation of starter junior Trey Maeker, freshman Ryan Egan, junior Nolan Hughes and sophomore Gannon Brady.

Hughes reached a career high in strikeouts over three innings of relief.

Truly there was no better momentum to have going into a three-game stretch against Fairfield University, but it just wouldn’t be the Rams strongest series opener, as Fairfield’s Jake Noviello struck out six over seven innings.

In a change of events it was the Rams who struck first to start off the series, with a sac fly from Bucciero to bring home junior Ryan Thiesse.

Fairfield put up one run on a solo home run shot by Mike Handal, but the Rams were ready for a challenge. The Rams added on three runs for a 4-1 lead, but that would be the end to the scoring for Fordham that day.

From there, the Stags went on a rampage adding five runs — four times in the fourth and once in the fifth to make the score 9-4.

Rams pitching took a big hit with junior Declan Lavelle dropping his first start of the season, giving up six hits over four innings and graduate student Austin Sachen had a rough time in relief, giving up four runs on six hits. Sachen did record a season-high eight strikeouts in the game.

Instead of playing a game on Sunday, the teams opted to play a doubleheader on Saturday, with the first game falling in favor of the Rams thanks to graduate

student Peter DeMaria.

Fordham trailed the Stags by one going into the second and quickly blasted three runs courtesy of McAndrews and a tworun double from freshman Jack Vallario.

Mike Handal was back with a vengeance in game two, bringing another solo home run to the Stags total. With the score at 3-2, the Rams pushed forward to add on more runs before Fairfield could do it first.

DeMaria brought home a runner while senior Zach Selinger delivered a two-run single to bring home two runners.

While the Stags tried to make a comeback, DeMaria slammed a solo home run to left to walk off the game, 7-6. DeMaria was the man of the game, finishing threefor-five with a double, a home run and three RBI. However, the start of the second game was less than ideal when Rams’ starting pitcher Connor Haywood suffered an injury and could not pitch. As a response, freshman Aric Berg continued his time of relief from the game before.

An early double from the Stags’ Becchetti started the scoring off for Fairfield, while the rest of the scoring did not happen until the halfway point.

A Pagliarini two-run homer was the highlight of the game for Fairfield as they pulled away with five runs by the end of the sixth inning.

Fairfield junior Colin McVeigh threw seven shutout innings, keeping the Rams cold at the plate all day.

Due to the inability to battle against McVeigh, the Rams

dropped the series with a final game score of 5-0.

In the final game of the week, the Rams faced off against Siena College at Houlihan Park. The Rams had a pretty evenly matched opponent ahead of them as both teams had roughly the same record going into the matchup on Tuesday.

Zach Sellinger opened up the scoring immediately with a grand slam off of Siena starting pitcher Arnad Mulamekic on a three-two count. Siena answered right back with a two-run homer in the second to keep the game close at 4-2.

From then on, it was all Rams as they made use of sloppy play from Siena. The Fordham bats heated up quickly with a Bucciero triple and a sac fly from DeMaria.

While Siena pulled within one in the third inning after a DiNicola two-run homer, the Rams put their foot on the gas with critical singles and doubles being the key style of play the Rams needed to go forward with to win the game.

March 22, 2023

Singles and doubles from players like sophomore Diego Prieto, Sahler, Sellinger and sophomore T.J. Wachter all contributed to the Rams 15-6 victory on a pleasant Tuesday afternoon.

Sellinger truly had himself a day with six RBI, one run and two hits and four at bats. Bucciero also consistently has put up numbers for the team, in three at bats recording three runs, two hits, one RBI and two walks.

The Fordham men’s baseball team is finally hitting their stride now as they claim three out of the five last games they have played. From what could have been described as a horrific start, this team, led primarily by tons of freshman talent, have shaped this team into a true contender going into Atlantic 10 play.

The Rams will be back in action for one last non-conference series on the road against Seton Hall University before returning to the Bronx to face the University of Hartford for one game on Tuesday.

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Fordham Baseball has picked things up after a slow start to the season.

Softball Wins Three in Hawaii at Rainbow Wahine Classic

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Softball took their talents to Honolulu beginning on March 9 for the three-day Rainbow Wahine Classic. The Rams faced off against Niagara University, Iowa State University and the University of Hawaii for a total of five games, ultimately heading home with three wins under their belt. After, Fordham returned to the Bronx for their home opener against St. John’s University.

Fordham entered Hawaii with over a week of rest in their system following three losses at the Winthrop Garnet & Gold Tournament in the final days of February. Looking for some momentum after what has been an uneven beginning to the season, the Rainbow Wahine Classic came at a perfect time for these Rams seeking to right the ship.

The action began in a matchup against Niagara, with the Rams walking away victorious by a 7-2 score. Freshman Eva Koratsis delivered the keynote early in this one, launching a grand slam in the first inning to give the Rams a 4-1 lead. They didn’t look back from there, as senior Devon Miller led the way in the circle with a complete

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Fordham Softball competed against some tough competition in Hawaii as they gear up for Atlantic 10 play.

game. She limited the damage all day, stranding nine Niagara runners on the base path.

A doubleheader came the following day for the Rams, starting off with a showdown against Iowa State. The Cyclones ultimately proved to be a major challenge for the Rams. Fordham was no-hit and shutout against Iowa State, falling by a score of 3-0.

Two Cyclone pitchers combined for the no-no with Saya Swain tossing four and two-thirds innings to start and Jaiden Ralston finishing it off. Sophomore Emilee Watkins and junior Bailey Enoch pitched valiantly, but the Rams were unable to muster any offense against Iowa State’s pitching.

Later, Fordham squared off with Hawaii in the first of two

scheduled matchups over the weekend. Hawaii, led by stellar pitching from Brianna Lopez, held Fordham to just two sixthinning runs as they topped the Rams 4-2. Fordham entered that sixth inning down 4-0, and a two-RBI double from sophomore Sydney Wells got them within striking distance.

But Lopez was able to tame Fordham’s rally, shutting the door in the seventh inning with the tying run at the plate.

She finished the game with 10 strikeouts of Fordham hitters.

After two straight losses, Fordham needed to rebound in another doubleheader the following day. The Rams squared off with two opponents they had already faced: first Niagara,

then another shot at Hawaii.

Fordham took advantage of their second chances, beating both Niagara and Hawaii to end the Classic with a good taste in their mouths. Against Niagara, the Rams received a stellar pitching performance from freshman Holly Beeman, who tossed a two-hit shutout to lead the Rams to a 2-0 victory.

Beeman has really made a mark as a freshman. This was her third complete game shutout of the young season, and she’s already been named Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week twice.

Fordham got their offense in this one courtesy of junior Bella Ayala, who drove in both of Fordham’s runs. In the sixth inning, she gave the Rams the

lead with a solo homer. In the seventh, she provided some insurance with a sacrifice fly that scored freshman Kate McGuire.

Behind Beeman’s pitching and Ayala’s offense, Fordham were able to secure the win.

The Rams ended their time in the Aloha State with a rematch against Hawaii, who shut-out Fordham the day before. Fordham got their revenge in a big way, winning via mercy rule 8-0 in just five innings.

The long ball was the name of the game for Fordham in this one, as the Rams got homers from Enoch, Wells and Koratsis in the victory.

Watkins and Enoch combined for the shutout, with the Rams returning home with a 3-2 record in Hawaii.

This past Saturday, the Rams finally got to the Bronx for their home opener against St. John’s.

Unfortunately, St. John’s proved to be too much for the Rams, who won via mercy rule 9-0 in five innings. Fordham mustered up just three hits against Loreley Francia and Miller surrendered eight runs in the circle.

Next up, Fordham has a nonconference matchup against Iona College before gearing up for Atlantic 10 play against St. Bonaventure University.