Fordham University

Fordham University

Latin: Universitas Fordhamensis
Motto	Latin: Sapientia et Doctrina (Wisdom and Learning)
Established	1841 (as St. John's College)
Type	Private, Independent, Catholic, Jesuit
Location	Bronx, Manhattan, and West Harrison, New York United States
Website	www.fordham.edu

Fordham University is a private university in the United States, with three campuses located in and around New York City. Founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St. John's College, placed in the care of the Society of Jesus shortly thereafter, the university has since become an independent institution under a lay Board of Trustees.

Mission and Reputation

According to its website, Fordham University states that it "is committed to the discovery of Wisdom and the transmission of Learning, through research and through undergraduate, graduate and professional education of the highest quality." The statement from the Board of Trustees goes on to say that while the school is no longer subject to strictly religious administration, it nonetheless values and incorporates its religious history and tradition, particularly in regards to the paradigm of Jesuit educational philosophy. The University promotes a Jesuit principle known as cura personalis, which fosters a faculty and administration respect for the individual student and their uniqueness, and the Jesuit principle magis which intends to inspire service and strive for excellence in all aspects of life, even beyond the academic.

Fordham University has a long standing reputation of excellence, both for secular and religious studies. Fordham University attracts students from around the world, and at the turn of the 21st century had registered students from approximately 90 countries in addition to every US state and territory. In 2009, U.S. News and World Report, which evlautes American schools every year, ranked Fordham university overall as 61st in the country, keeping with many years of the school being listed within the top 100 schools of the US. Fordham's graduate schools are also singled out for their excellence often: In 2008, Fordham University School of Law, the 15th most selective law school in the United States, was ranked 25th in the nation in, the Graduate School of Social Service was ranked 17th, the Graduate School of Education was ranked 58th, and the College of Business Administration 71st.

History

File:Keatinghall.jpg

Keating Hall at the Rose Hill campus circa February 1937.

Fordham University was originally founded as St. John's College in 1841 by the Coadjutor Bishop (later Archbishop) of the Diocese of New York, the Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes. The College was the first Catholic institution of higher education in the northeastern United States. Bishop Hughes purchased most of Rose Hill Manor and Estate in Fordham, the Bronx, then part of Westchester County, at $40,000 for the purpose of establishing the school. St. John's College opened with only six students on June 24, 1841, with the Reverend John McCloskey as its president. Most of the original faculty were secular priests and lay instructors. The College was paired with a seminary, St. Joseph's, which had been founded in 1839 and was in the separate charge of Italian Lazarists (also known as "Vincentians"). In 1861, St. John's College ended its connection to the seminary when St. Joseph's closed.

In 1846 St. John's College received its charter from the New York state legislature, and Bishop Hughes convinced a group of Jesuits from Kentucky to staff the new school. In 1847, Fordham's first school in Manhattan opened, which, in 1861, became the separate, chartered College of St. Francis Xavier. With the addition in 1905 of a law school and a (now defunct) medical school, the name was changed to Fordham University in 1907.

Throughout the early twenieth century, the school continued to expand. In 1912, the university opened a College of Pharmacy, which offered a three-year program in pharmacy and did not require its students to obtain bachelor's degrees until the late 1930s. The College had a mainly Jewish student body, and in recognition of that, students were exempt from the then-required course in Catholic theology. The College's longtime dean, Jacob Diner, was also Jewish. The College of Pharmacy closed because of declining enrollment in 1972.

In 1961, Fordham Law School opened at the new Lincoln Center campus—the first building to open in the Lincoln Square Renewal Project.In 1969, the colleges at 302 Broadway were moved to the new Lowenstein Building on the Lincoln Center campus, and other colleges soon followed.

The middle to late twentieth century proved to be a turning point in the school's history. In 1969 the board of trustees was reorganized to include a majority of non-clergy members, and officially made the University an independent institution. Fordham College at Rose Hill became coeducational in 1974, as a result of the merger with Thomas More College (the University’s coordinate college for women opened in 1964). Fordham maintained its prestige for both secular and religious studies throughout the later half of the twentieth century.

With the 21st century, the university has once again looked at expanding and restructuring. In August 2005, the University announced a multi-year, $1 billion proposed master plan to add 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m²) of academic, student activities, and dormitory space to the Lincoln Center campus. The development of the campus was set to begin with the expansion of Quinn Library and the construction of a new Law School building, a new student center, a dormitory, and additional parking. Future phases of the development plan included the construction of new space for Fordham College of Liberal Studies, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Graduate School of Business, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the Graduate School of Education.

Fordham, like many universities, has also started to reach out to the global community. In April 2008, Fordham entered into an affiliation with Heythrop College, the Jesuit specialist Philosophy and Theology College of the University of London, which is located near Kensington Square, in central London. The University of London Consortium of Colleges consists of such institutions as King's College London, University College London, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Fordham will also house its London Dramatic Academy, and College of Business Administration programs at Heythrop as well.

Facilities

The front of the Leon Lowenstein Building at the Lincoln Center campus.

To accommodate this student body, the university has two residential campuses: Rose Hill in the Bronx and Lincoln Center in Manhattan. The University also maintains programs at the Westchester campus in West Harrison (formerly Marymount in Tarrytown), a biological field station in Armonk, New York and two international locations: The Beijing International MBA (BIMBA) in Beijing, China, and the London Center in the United Kingdom, home to the London Drama Academy.

The Administration Building at the Rose Hill campus, constructed circa 1841.

The undergraduate Fordham College of Liberal Studies holds classes on all three New York campuses, utilizing the same faculty and curriculum as the other colleges in the University. In addition, the flexibility of multiple campuses facilitates options for both full-time and part-time study and unconventional scheduling, in order to accommodate students who are employed full-time or otherwise unable to take advantage of the offerings at Fordham's other, more centralized, undergraduate colleges.

In December 2007, the University established the Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art at its Rose Hill campus. The museum contains more than 200 relics from classical antiquity, ranging from Greek terra cotta vases to Roman marble heads to Etruscan urns. The museum was a gift from William D. Walsh, a 1951 graduate and founding chairman of Sequoia Associates. The museum is located at the William D. Walsh Family Library on the Rose Hill campus. It is the largest collection of its kind in the New York metropolitan area.

Rose Hill

The Southern Boulevard entrance to the Rose Hill campus.

The Rose Hill campus, established in 1841, is home to the undergraduate Fordham College at Rose Hill, the College of Business Administration, and a portion of the Fordham College of Liberal Studies as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School of Religion & Religious Education. Located on 85 acres (340,000 m²) in the north Bronx, it is among the largest "open space campuses" in New York City. The campus is bordered by the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and "Little Italy of the Bronx" on Arthur Avenue. Rose Hill's traditional collegiate Gothic architecture, cobblestone streets, and green expanses of lawn have been used as settings in a number of feature films over the years. Rose Hill is also home to the University Church, which was built in 1845 as a seminary chapel and parish church for surrounding farms. The gothic-style church is an official New York City landmark and contains the original altar from Old St. Patrick's Cathedral along with stained glass windows first intended as a gift by Louis-Philippe of France for the cathedral. Among the 15 campus dormitories are Fordham's three residential colleges: O'Hare Hall, Tierney Hall, and Queen's Court (the last, with its notable Bishop's Lounge, dates back to the days of St. John's College). Finlay Hall, now an upperclassman dormitory, was built in 1905 as home to the (since defunct) medical school,^{[citation needed]}and later was home to the chemistry department for 47 years, until 1968. Another dormitory, Walsh Hall, was built facing the street as a condition of the loan Fordham received from New York City. If Fordham had defaulted on the loan, the city would have converted it into a housing project, however this did not occur, and the building's entrance still confusingly faces the street on the edge of the campus instead of the interior of the campus. Walsh Hall was formerly known simply as 555 due to its address: 555 E.191st Street. The campus is served by the Fordham station of the Metro-North Railroad (the tracks run along the boundary fence), with a southern terminus at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. Public transit buses stop adjacent to campus exits and New York City Subway stations are within walking distance. The University also provides a "Ram Van" shuttle service among the three main campuses. About 6,284 undergraduates and graduates attend the Rose Hill campus, with 3,143 in residence.

Lincoln Center

Peter, Fisher of Men statue at the Lincoln Center campus.

The Lincoln Center campus, established in 1961, is home to the undergraduate Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a portion of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, as well as the School of Law, the Graduate School of Business Administration, the Graduate School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Service. The eight-acre campus occupies the area from West 60th Street to West 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, in the cultural heart of Manhattan. Across the street is one of the world's great cultural centers, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; nearby are Central Park, Broadway, and Columbus Circle. The campus is served by public transit bus stops at the campus entrances, and by the New York City Subway at 59th Street–Columbus Circle station. The University also provides a "Ram Van" shuttle service among its three campuses.

About 8,000 undergraduate, graduate, professional, and doctoral students study at the Lincoln Center campus, where about 940 live in apartment-style housing. There are almost 1,800 undergraduates enrolled in Fordham College At Lincoln Center, with an additional 300 undergraduates in the Fordham College of Liberal Studies (at this campus), and the remainder comprise the graduate population. The Lincoln Center campus currently consists of the Leon Lowenstein Building, McMahon Hall dormitory, Gerald M. Quinn Library, and Fordham School of Law. Fordham offices are also housed at 33 W. 60th St and 888 W. 57th St. The Lincoln Center campus also has two outdoor basketball and tennis courts.

There are two open, grassy plazas at the Lincoln Center Campus, built over the Quinn Library, one level up from the street. The larger plaza was historically known as Robert Moses Plaza and once hosted a bust of its namesake on a barren cement landscape (lawns have since been added), and the smaller one is known as St. Peter's Garden. A memorial to Fordham students and alumni who died on 9/11 stands in St. Peter's Garden. According to Fordham's expansion plan, Robert Moses Plaza may be razed to make way for several new buildings.

Marymount

The 25-acre (100,000 m²) Tarrytown campus was officially established in 2002 when Marymount College consolidated with Fordham University, and closed in 2008.

Located 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City in Tarrytown, New York, the campus was home to a branch of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, as well as extensions of the graduate schools of education, social service, and business administration.

Marymount College graduated its final undergraduate class in May 2007, after Fordham University announced in 2005 that the college would be phased out. University administration announced that the campus would remain open for Fordham graduate programs in several disciplines. However, in the fall of 2007 the University announced its intention to seek buyers for the Marymount campus and move its programs to less expansive facilities elsewhere in Westchester. University administration stated that the expenses required to support the programs on campus far exceeded their demand. University officials estimate that the revenue gained from the proposed sale would not be greater than the expenses Fordham incurred maintaining and improving the campus since its merger with Marymount College. President Father McShane nonetheless stated that the University's decision was a "painful" one. Fordham then announced it's intention to move the remaining programs from the Marymount campus to a new location at 400 Westchester Avenue in Harrison, New York by Fall 2008. On February 17, 2008, Fordham announced the sale of the campus for $27 million to EF Schools, a chain of private language-instruction schools.

Westchester

The University moved Fordham College of Liberal Studies (Westchester Division), graduate schools of Business Administration, Education, Social Service, and Religion and Religious Education, from the Marymount campus to 400 Westchester Avenue, in West Harrison, New York. The first classes were scheduled for fall, 2008.

The new campus includes a three-story, 62,500-square-foot (5,810 m²) building on 32 landscaped acres with a stream and pond. Fordham signed a 20-year lease for the new campus. The facilities include 26 newly designed classrooms featuring technological amenities such as "smart boards," teleconferencing capabilities, and newly installed seating and learning areas.

In addition, faculty offices and administrative support space, a library resource center, a food service facility, and meeting areas both indoor and outdoor for student sessions are available. Over $8 million was spent in renovation to provide the University with green building technology, including the design of academic facilities surrounding a large central courtyard.

This campus is served by the White Plains station of the Metro-North Railroad, approximately 4 miles (6 km) away in the county seat of White Plains, with a southern terminus at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. The White Plains station and the campus are both served by the Westchester County Bus System ("The Bee-Line"). In addition, the University offers a "Ram-Van" shuttle among the three campuses. Westchester County Airport is the closest to this campus, at a drive of approximately 6 miles (10 km).

Louis Calder Center

The Louis Calder Center is Fordham's biological field station for ecological research and environmental education. Located 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City in Armonk, New York, it is the only exclusively ecological research field station in the New York metropolitan area. The station consists of 113 forested acres with a 10-acre (40,000 m²) lake and 19 buildings, which are used for laboratory and office space, educational programs, equipment storage, and residences. The station's state-of-the-art equipment, research library, greenhouses, and housing are available for research and educational programs for students, faculty, and visiting scientists.

Beijing, People's Republic of China

The Beijing International MBA Program (BiMBA) is a joint venture between a consortium of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States and Peking University and is managed by Fordham University and the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) BiMBA was founded in 1998 and is located on the campus of Peking University in Beijing, People's Republic of China. BiMBA enrolls over 400 students a year in traditional part-time and full-time MBA programs, and in Executive MBA (EMBA) programs. It offers the first foreign MBA degree to be approved by the Chinese government, and was ranked number 1 in China by Fortune Magazine.

London Center, United Kingdom

London Drama Academy (LDA) at Fordham's Bloomsbury-area London Center offers classes on British acting, using a primarily practical approach. The Academy was founded in the 1970s by Marymount College and a group of tutors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Today it offers semester- and year-long sessions, with classes taught by working RADA-trained theater professionals.

The London Dramatic Academy is currently headed by Richard Digby Day.^{[citation needed]}

During the summer, the College of Business Administration holds marketing classes in the Center.

Libraries

Leo T. Kissam Memorial Law Library at Fordham Law School

The Fordham University libraries own over 2 million volumes, subscribe to over 15,500 periodicals and 19,000 electronic journals, and are a depository for United States Government documents. The William D. Walsh Family Library is at the Rose Hill campus; the Gerald M. Quinn Library at the Lincoln Center campus; the Gloria Gaines Memorial Library at the Marymount campus; and the Leo T. Kissam Memorial Law Library serves the Law School.

Programs

Fordham University's academic ideals are drawn from its Jesuit influences. T

Core Curriculum

All undergraduate colleges at Fordham share a Core Curriculum that consists of 17–21 courses (depending on foreign language proficiency) drawn from nine disciplines and/or families of disciplines intended to provide a sound liberal arts education. In outline, the core includes:

• One course of English composition / rhetoric and two of literature
• Two courses of Philosophy and two of Theology
• Two courses each in History, Social Sciences, and the Natural Sciences
• One course each in Mathematics and the Fine Arts
• Foreign language up to an advanced level (1 to 4 courses)
• Courses on American Pluralism and Global Studies
• A capstone Senior Seminar in Values and Moral Choices

Students are expected to complete the core (in their home school) by the end of sophomore year, with the exception of the Global, Pluralism, and Senior Values courses.

Colleges

Fordham University comprises four undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools on three campuses.

Undergraduate colleges

• Fordham College at Rose Hill
• College of Business Administration
• Fordham College of Liberal Studies
• Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Graduate schools

• Fordham University School of Law
• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
• Graduate School of Education
• Graduate School of Social Service
• Graduate School of Business
• Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education

Student activities

There are many student activities at Fordham, including the following.

Athletics

The Fordham varsity sports teams are known as the "Rams." Their colors are maroon and white.

The University supports 22 men's and women's varsity teams and a number of club teams, plus a significant intramural sports program. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference in all sports except football. In football, the Rams play in the Patriot League of NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The Rams were the 2002 Patriot League co-champions, and captured the 2007 Patriot League title outright.

Fordham athletics gained early fame for college football in the beginning of the 20th century, particularly with the success of the famous "Seven Blocks of Granite." In addition, the University launched the careers of dozens of professional baseball players, including a Hall of Fame inductee, Frankie Frisch, known by the further-alliterative nickname, "The Fordham Flash."

Student publications

• Fordham Law Review, the most widely-cited of the law school's six scholarly journals serving the legal profession and the public by discussing current legal issues.
• Red Rover, (formerly: Excersions) a literary magazine published once a year from the Lincoln Center Campus. It provides students with an outlet for creativity and expression through fiction, personal essays, photography, cartoons, poetry, graphic arts, etc.
• The Ampersand, Fordham's literary magazine
• The CBA Business Journal, a source of business news and commentary written by and for Fordham University students, publishing three issues per semester.
• The Fordham Ram (commonly known as The Ram), student newspaper, published from the Rose Hill campus since 1918. The Ram is the University's official journal of record.
• The Fordham Observer, Fordham University's award-winning student newspaper, published from the Lincoln Center campus since 1981.
• the paper, Fordham University's journal of news, analysis, comment, and review.
• The Vagabond, The Ampersand's monthly supplement.

Broadcasting

• WFUV, 90.7 FM is Fordham University's 50,000-watt radio station, with studios located in Keating Hall on the Rose Hill campus and the transmitter located atop a building owned by Montefiore Medical Center. First broadcast in 1947, the station serves approximately 280,000 listeners weekly in Greater New York and thousands more globally on the Web (wfuv.org).^{[citation needed]} The station is a National Public Radio affiliate, and mainly has an adult album alternative format, although it adheres to a variety (radio) format on weekends, when it broadcasts programs devoted to various genres, including folk music, jazz and Irish music, as well as live sports. The station has student-run news and sports departments, though much of the other programming has been staffed by professionals since the 1980s.^{[citation needed]} It has 27 full-time employees and 70 part-time student enployees.

• Fordham Nightly News (FNN), Fordham University's evening news program since 2004, was created by and is produced by students. FNN is a part of radio WFUV News, and its directors are part-time staff at NBC News, CBS News, CBS Radio. The program is produced 4 nights weekdays (no Wednesday broadcast), and has built up a management structure with about 35 staff—from on-air talent to technical production. FNN is on a closed-circuit channel, EIC-TV10, and reports current topics including local and international news, entertainment, sports, and weather.

Performance Arts

• Fordham University Choir is an ensemble of students from the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Its repertoire includes both sacred and secular music.
• Fordham University Theatre Company: All theatre majors may participate in as many productions as they like and in any capacity they wish, as members of the Fordham University Theatre Company.
• Mimes & Mummers, a theatre troupe housed in Collins Auditorium on the Rose Hill campus, is one of the oldest traditions at the University.
• Fordham Experimental Theatre, located in the Blackbox Theatre in Collins Hall on the Rose Hill campus, is an entirely student run theatre group.
• Expressions Dance Alliance, located in Keating Hall's Basement Dance Studio, was established in 2001 and strives to produce an original show every semester.
• Fordham University Women's Choir is the University's newest choir, founded in the fall of 2001.
• Fordham Ramblers, Fordham's all-male a cappella group, has been in existence since 1893. Their repertoire ranges from contemporary to traditional music.
• Fordham Satin Dolls, Fordham's all-female a cappella group, has been in existence since 2002.

Rhetoric and debate

• Fordham Debate Society (FDS) is based at Rose Hill and is the oldest existing club in the university, having been founded in 1854.

In 1982, the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA), Inc. was founded at Fordham, during a tournament called the "Fordham Fandango." FDS is still very active on APDA, and regularly places among the top teams in the country. The team competes weekly on APDA, but also occasionally attends international tournaments, ranking well in the World Universities Debating Championship standings.

• Gannon Speech and Debate is based at the Lincoln Center Campus, and engages students in forensics training so that they may compete intercollegiately. The club is named for the Rev. Robert I. Gannon, S.J., President of Fordham from 1936–1949, considered to have been a popular and effective speaker. Alumni of the club have been successful in earning fellowships and awards.

Athletic Booster Clubs

• The Sixth Man Club, supports the Fordham University Men's and Women's basketball programs. The club was founded in the early 1990s by a group of Rose Hill College seniors. Sixth Man cheers on and roots for the Ram's from the Section 8 bleachers in the Rose Hill Gym. In 2005, it was awarded club of the year.

• The Twelfth Man Club, the club was formed during the Ram's 2007 football season. It is a student led group that represents Fordham's student body at all university football games.

Global outreach

Global Outreach! (commonly known as GO!), is a student led, university sponsored organization dedicated to educating students about issues of social justice and individual responsibility through service trips to global and domestic locations. Separate programs on each campus currently sponsor 27 annual trips ranging from Thailand to East New York, and dealing with such diverse issues as public health, affordable housing, migrant labor, and disaster relief.

Military science

The Military Science program is available to Fordham undergraduate and graduate students regardless of their course of study, as well as to students at over 50 other New York area colleges and universities. It includes the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, as well as military science classes and extracurricular activities.

The Army ROTC Battalion at Fordham University has its roots training cadets in the late 1840s before it was officially established as a formal program in 1926. It has since been the Army ROTC headquarters for the New York City region. Among the notable graduates of the Fordham ROTC Battalion (though not necessarily of Fordham University) include former Secretary of State Colin Powell, four-star General John M. Keane, and at least four recipients of the Medal of Honor. The battalion has been distinguished as being in the top fifteen percent of the United State's Army ROTC programs.

Fordham students are also eligible to participate in the Air Force ROTC Program hosted at nearby Manhattan College and the Navy ROTC Program hosted at SUNY Maritime College.

Philip H. McGrath House of Prayer

The Philip H. McGrath House of Prayer is located in Goshen, NY, and is used exclusively for Fordham's Retreat Ministries. The McGrath House is situated in a rural, residential area about seventy miles northwest of Fordham's Rose Hill campus.

The McGrath House has facilities for a large group of students and retreat coordinators to stay overnight while participating in a Fordham Retreat. Fordham Campus Ministry regularly hosts non-compulsory retreats at the McGrath House, including Emmaus, Kairos, Charis, Global Outreach Retreats, and other specialized retreats.

Honor societies and programs

• Matteo Ricci Society: The Matteo Ricci Society is an honor society open to Fordham students who are likely candidates for academic fellowships. Students are invited to join based on academic success and other factors. Faculty assist members in preparing applications for fellowships. It can provide funding for certain approved summer research opportunities and prominent internships

• Honors Study: All four undergraduate colleges at Fordham offer an honors program for matriculated students. Eligible students from any major (with the exception of the BFA degree program in Dance) may be selected.
  • Fordham College of Liberal Studies offers an honors program option tailored specifically for non-traditional students, which is unusual for institutions serving that student population.
  • Specifics of the program differ among the four undergraduate colleges, but the program size is small in each case. Students are selected from the top percentile of each incoming freshmen class, based on their academic and extracurricular achievements. Honors students are required to take specific Honors classes which replace the Core Curriculum. The Honors programs emphasize independent projects under faculty guidance. Successful completion of the program entitles the student to the designation in cursu honorum on the diploma and the transcript.

• National Honor Societies: The University has chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, national honor societies; Alpha Sigma Nu, the national honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities; Beta Gamma Sigma, the national honor society of accredited schools of business; Beta Alpha Psi, the honor society of accounting, and Alpha Sigma Lambda, the national honor society for non-traditional students.
  • There are chapters of the Society of Sigma Xi, a national honorary scientific research organization established to recognize and foster the scientific spirit in American colleges and to provide both stimulus and acknowledgment for independent scientific research; Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society for political science students; Alpha Mu Gamma, the national honor society for foreign languages. Fordham also has chapters of Phi Delta Kappa and Kappa Delta Pi, both honor societies in education.
  • Fordham University has chapters of other honor societies which are major specific.

• Office of Prestigious Fellowships: The University Office of Prestigious Fellowships helps guide student candidates through the various application processes. It has helped successful students compete for a broad range of scholarships and fellowships, including the Truman Scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship to Britain, Fulbright Program, Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, James Madison Fellowship, and Ford Foundation grants, as well as the National Security Education Program (NSEP) and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants.

Traditions

Fordham traditions

Fordham Maroon

Magenta was Fordham's original color, but Harvard used the same color. A series of baseball games between the two was to determine the right to use it. Harvard, despite having lost the competition, continued to use the color. Therefore, Fordham eventually changed its official color to maroon. (Harvard subsequently also abandoned magenta, though in favor of crimson.)

The Ram

The ram evolved into Fordham's mascot and symbol from a slightly vulgar cheer that Fordham fans sang during an 1893 football game against the United States Military Academy at West Point. The students began cheering "One-damn, two-damn, three-damn...Fordham!" The song was an instant hit, but "damn" was later sanitized to "Ram" to conform to the university's image.

The Victory Bell

The "Victory Bell," which is mounted outside the Rose Hill Gym, is from the Japanese aircraft carrier Junyō.^{[citation needed]} According to the plaque below the bell, it was recovered near Saipan where it was "silenced by an aerial Bomb."^{[citation needed]} It was given to Fordham as a gift by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz "as a Memorial to Our Dear Young Dead of World War II." ^{[citation needed]} It was blessed by Cardinal Spellman, and "was first rung at Fordham by the President of the United States, the Honorable Harry S. Truman on May 11, 1946, the Charter Centenary of the University." ^{[citation needed]}It is rung by each Fordham senior player after victorious home football games and its ringing also marks the start of the commencement ceremonies each May. ^{[citation needed]}A small group of students rang the bell on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in honor of the war dead.^{[citation needed]}

The Rose Hill Gymnasium

File:Fordham court 800.jpg

The Rose Hill Gym

The men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the volleyball squad, play in the Rose Hill Gymnasium, the oldest gym still in use at the NCAA Division I level.

The Great Seal

The Great Seal of Fordham University bears the Society of Jesus coat of arms at the center. The shield bears the Greek letters of the name Jesus, IHS, with the cross resting in the horizontal line of the letter "H," three nails beneath (evoking those used in the crucifixion of Jesus), all in gold in a field framed in maroon, the color of the University, with silver fleurs-de-lis (reminiscent of the French origin of the first Jesuit instructors) on the edge of the maroon frame. Around the shield, a scroll with the University's motto in latin, Sapienta et Doctrina (Wisdom and Learning), is etched. The scroll rests on a field in which tongues of fire are displayed, recalling the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom that marked the first Pentecost. A laurel above the shield has engraved the names of the disciplines that were taught when the school was granted university status in 1907: arts, science, philosophy, medicine, and law. Surrounding the entire seal is a heraldic belt, which has engraved the name of the school in Latin, Universitas Fordhamensis, and year of founding.

Festival of Lessons and Carols

The University annually presents a concert of Lessons and Carols during the Christmas holiday season. The ensemble university choir presents one evening concert at the large and dramatic Church of Saint Paul the Apostle adjacent to the Lincoln Center Campus, and one afternoon concert at the more humble and intimate University Church at the Rose Hill Campus, each year.

William Spain Seismic Observatory

Since 1910, when the Rev. Edward P. Tivnan, SJ, installed a seismograph in the basement of the administration building at the Rose Hill Campus, Fordham has been the site of the oldest seismic station in New York City. William Spain Seismic Observatory has since measured much of the world's natural and unnatural trembling, including earthquakes, China's first atomic explosion in 1964, and local subway trains.

The station opened in 1924 and sits at the edge of Edward's Parade in the center of the campus, next to Freeman Hall, home of the department of physics. It is named in honor of a physics student who died in 1922 and whose father donated the funds to build the station.

Encaenia

Fordham College at Rose Hill annually stages an Encaenia on an evening near the conclusion of the academic year. Faculty, administrators, and students process in academic regalia to a ceremony where candidates for degrees at the current year's commencement are presented awards and honors. The ceremony includes a sentimental speech by the college's valedictorian, as well as the traditionally more humorous yet equally endearing speech by the honorary "Lord" or "Lady of the Manor" selected for the evening.

Songs

Fordham's school song is "Alma Mater Fordham":

O Alma Mater Fordham, How mighty is thy power

to link our hearts to thee in love that grows with every hour.

Thy winding walks, Thy hallowed halls

Thy lawns, Thine ivy-mantled walls;

O Fordham Alma Mater, what mem'ries each recalls.

O Alma Mater Fordham, while yet the life blood starts

Shined by thy sacred image within our heart of hearts.

And in the years that are to be,

May life and love be true to me,

O Fordham Alma Mater, as I am true to thee..

Notable alumni

Among the notable people who have attended Fordham are:

• Alan Alda, six-time Emmy Award and six-time Golden Globe Award-winning actor
• William Casey, former United States Director of Central Intelligence
• Mary Higgins Clark, best-selling suspense novelist
• Geraldine Ferraro, former Representative to the United States Congress, the first woman Vice Presidential candidate by a major political party in the United States
• Frankie Frisch, known as the "Fordham Flash," Baseball Hall of Famer
• General John "Jack" Keane, retired four-star General and former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army
• Bob Keeshan, television's multiple award-winning "Captain Kangaroo"
• G. Gordon Liddy, lawyer, political operative for President Richard Nixon, felon, leader of the White House Plumbers, political pundit and radio show host
• Vince Lombardi, football coaching legend
• Charles Osgood, three-time Emmy Award and two-time Peabody Award-winning journalist and Radio Hall of Fame inductee
• Eugene Shvidler, Russian-American billionaire and international oil tycoon,
• Denzel Washington, two-time Academy Award and two-time Golden Globe Award-winning actor.

Notable faculty

• Joseph Abboud, fashion designer
• Bruce Andrews, poet and theorist on state and global capitalism
• Hilaire Belloc, writer
• Daniel Berrigan, S.J., poet-in-residence and world-renowned peace activist
• Mary Bly, Writer
• Joseph Campbell, poet, Irish studies scholar, Irish republican and POW
• W. Norris Clarke, S.J., philosopher and noted authority on St. Thomas Aquinas
• Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., noted theologian, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
• Brian Davies, OP, noted philosopher of religion and Aquinas scholar
• Patrick Heelan, S.J. noted philosopher of science
• Victor Francis Hess, Nobel Laureate for physics
• Dietrich von Hildebrand, theologian
• William T. Hogan, S.J., economist and noted authority on the steel industry
• J. Quentin Lauer, S.J., philosopher and noted authority on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Paul Levinson, author of The Plot To Save Socrates and winner of the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel
• James Marsh, radical philosopher and noted authority on Marx
• Mark Massa, S.J., authority on American Catholicism
• Matthew Maguire, two-time OBIE Award-winning actor, director, and playwright
• Marshall McLuhan (Visiting, 1967), communications theorist and coiner of the phrase, "the medium is the message."
• Frederick Marotto, Mathematician, author of "Marotto Theorem" dealing with Chaos.
• William O'Malley, S.J., actor in the film The Exorcist, for which he was also a technical advisor; author of numerous books
• Margaret Mead, noted anthropologist
• Diana Villiers Negroponte, professor of history and law; wife of US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte
• Lawrence J. Sacharow, OBIE Award-winning director
• Asif Siddiqi, historian specializing in the Cold War Era space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. He is a leading authority and scholar on the Soviet Space Program.
• Daniel Soyer, Historian, author and authority on Jewish immigration into New York City

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Fred C. Feddeck. Hale Men of Fordham: Hail!. Trafford Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-55212-577-7
• Fordham University Staff, Office of the Sesquicentennial. As I Remember Fordham: Selections from the Sesquicentennial Oral History Project. Fordham University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8232-1338-2
• Robert Ignatius Gannon, S.J. Up to the Present: the story of Fordham. Doubleday, 1967. ISBN not available
• Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Fordham: A History and Memoir, Revised Edition. Fordham University Press, New York. September, 2008. ISBN 0823229777
• Thomas Gaffney Taaffe. A History of St. John's College, Fordham, N.Y. The Catholic Publication Society Co., 1891. ISBN not available

External links

• Official website
• Fordham Athletics

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