MEN’S TENNIS 3-0 TO START THE SEASON — PAGE 20 COLLEGE RADIO REMAINS RELEVANT — PAGE 7

VOLUME 93, ISSUE 14 SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Bike sharing in New York City is a boon.

Opinions PAGE 9 Culture PAGE 13

Singer Katy B performs new album at Webster Hall.

Sports PAGE 19

Women’s soccer crushed by nation-ally ranked Texas A&M.

INSIDE

SERVING THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

FOR OVER 90 YEARS1918-2011

Rams Trample Lions For Liberty Cup

Fordham players celebrate the football team’s victory over the Columbia Lions at Homecoming to win the Rams’ second straight Liberty Cup. SEE BACK PAGE

“Fordham Fest” Celebrates Traditions and Community

Fordham Forges Partnership with Univ. of Pretoria

Th e Ram Explores NSO Fees,Expenses

President Benigno Aquino Awarded Honorary Degree

By EMILY ARATAASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

On Monday aft ernoon, stu-dents, faculty and board members packed into the fi rst-fl oor Keating auditorium to witness Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, award the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, with a Doctor of Laws honoris causa for his work in securing de-mocracy for the Filipino people.

Th e ceremony began with a dra-matic entrance by the president to a standing ovation from the crowd. Aft er a short invocation by Fordham’s one-time president Rev. Joseph O’Hare, S.J., the crowd was seated, with the majority of students leaning against the walls because there were barely enough seats for the board members.

Th ree members of Fordham University’s Philippine-American Club performed the Philippine na-tional anthem “Lupang Hinirang” in Tagalog, which they followed with a performance of “Th e Star-Spangled Banner.”

McShane took the podium to SEE PRESIDENT ON PAGE 4

President Aquino III Honored for Government Reform Workbegin the ceremony.

“We at Fordham look upon your visit as a great grace to the Uni-versity,” he said. “You have given yourself over to the great and wor-thy work of saving democracy. Ate-neo and Fordham together — the world doesn’t have a chance.”

McShane went on to explain the connections that brought Aquino to Fordham. Many of the Jesuits present in the audience did much of their apostolic work in the Phil-ippines. Th ey aspired to teach at the prestigious Ateneo de Manila University, which is Aquino’s alma mater. Th e University was the be-ginning of an education, which be-gan his thought process about what was ailing his country.

Aquino was born into a family very much in the public eye. His mother was the former president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino, and his father was Senator Beniano Aquino, Jr.

“Your father inspired a revolu-tion, your mother sparked hope, [and] you have lived your life self-lessly in the service of others,” Mc-

By CHRISTOPHER KENNEDYSTAFF WRITER

Fresh off of Welcome Week and the beginning of classes, Fordham students were treated to another set of activities meant to build spirit in the week leading up to Homecom-ing.

Th is year’s Fordham Week, known as “Festivus Fordhamensis” or “Fordham Fest,” was organized chiefl y by United Student Govern-ment, and events were built around the theme of history and tradition.

“Th e Fest reminds students about the rich history of the Univer-sity, what it means to be a Fordham student, and why we love the four years that we spend here,” Elizabeth Anderson, FCRH ’13, USG vice president for student life and main

organizer of the week’s events, said in an email.

“For the freshmen, it’s an oppor-tunity to make a true connection to the University and forge their way into the Fordham community, and for upperclassman its an opportu-nity for them to make themselves part of the tradition of Fordham,” she said.

Th e events, taking place from Tuesday to Sunday of last week, were varied, some organized by USG and others by groups like Commuting Students Association, El Grito de Lares, Rodrigue’s Coff ee House and Peer Educators.

Th e fi rst main event of the week was the traditional Performance Showcase, held on the Keating steps. Th e event featured performances by

SEE FORDHAM FEST ON PAGE 4

By VICTORIA RAUMANAGING EDITOR

Fordham has made signifi cant strides recently in fostering its re-lationship with the University of Pretoria, with the introduction of a new semester-long study abroad program, set to begin in February 2012, and the reception of that University’s president on Ford-ham’s campus last June.

Th e potential for collaboration that this relationship off ers is not yet fully realized, but the universities’ partnership will likely transcend the boundaries of traditional study abroad or exchange programs and possibly allow for further involve-ment on the African continent.

“Th ere are real opportunities for Fordham and the University of Pre-toria to deepen our partnerships and to extend it into areas where we haven’t explored in the past,” Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., provost of the University, said. “Th e two institutions are really committ ed to making this work.”

Programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels, faculty ex-

SEE SOUTH AFRICA ON PAGE 4

By TOM HASKINCOPY EDITOR

Fordham hardly diff ers from oth-er institutions in the various fees it charges alongside tuition and room and board. Each semester, students pay separate, but mandatory, fees for student activities and technology ac-cess, among others. One fee that falls into this second category is one of the very fi rst charges in their student accounts: $325 for New Student Orientation (NSO).

Th e Offi ce of Student Leader-ship and Community Development (OSL&CD) declines to release its budgeting information, making it diffi cult to discern how exactly that fee is allocated. Additionally, student leaders for orientation are contractu-ally prohibited from disclosing their budgeting information, according to Artie de los Santos, GSB ’12, and one of four Orientation Coordinators for 2011. With 1508 students enrolled at

SEE ORIENTATION ON PAGE 2

Students celebrate Festivus Fordhamensis at the annual Homecoming game.PHOTO BY BIANCA BATIS-GELP/THE RAM

PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM

Sparked by Womack’s 100-Yard Interception Return, Fordham Defeats Rival Columbia 21-14 in Annual New York City Matchup

NEWSPAGE 2 • THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

SECURITY

BRIEFS

Sept. 13, Southern Blvd.,5:45 p.m.

A graduate student returned to his vehicle and found his window broken and FM transmitt er removed from his car. NYPD responded and took a report of the theft .

Sept. 13, Alumni Court South, 7 p.m.

A female student reported an sexual assult that occurred on Sept. 3. Th e victum declined to pursue the incident through the NYPD, but the dean of students will continue to pursue the matt er.

Sept. 14, Lorillard Place,9 p.m.

A student was walking alone from a friend’s house and was approached from behind by a male wearing a green hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap. Th e suspect had his hand in his pocket and said, “Give up your phone if you don’t want to get slashed.” Th e student surrendered his phone and the suspect fl ed. Th e student was not injured and NYPD responded to the incident.

Sept. 17, Bathgate and Fordham Road,

2 a.m.

A former student was walking eastbound when he was approached by a male. Th ere was no verbal exchange between the two. Th e male swung at the Fordham alumnus and hit him with what appeared to be a broken bott le. Th e alumnus sustained a gash to his right hand. Th e injuries were not serious.

Sept. 18, Belmont Avenue,2 a.m.

A male student was at a party with his girlfriend when a second male tried to dance with his date. When the female refused, the male struck the boyfriend. Th e boyfriend suff ered a swollen right cheek and a bump on his head. He was taken to St. Barnabus Hospital.

Sept. 19, Arthur Avenue,2 a.m.

Two students were walking toward Arthur Avenue when another male, heading in the same direction, made a comment to one of the students and then punched him in the head. Th e student sustained a gash over his right eye and was taken to St. Barnabus Hospital.

Sept. 20, Faculty Memorial Hall, 7:10 a.m.

A male entered the basement by the ramp and att empted to steal copper piping. Security was notifi ed and chased the individual and apprehended him on Belmont Avenue. NYPD was notifi ed and the individual was arrested. All property was recovered.

Students, OLs Weigh in on Orientation

the beginning of the fall 2011 semester at Rose Hill between Fordham Col-lege and the Gabelli School of Busi-ness, the total collected from the fee is approximately $490,100.

Th e costs and scope of the pro-gram extend far beyond its most vis-ible three days, this year, shortened by Hurricane Irene, at the end of August. Th ere are three days in the early sum-mer on which incoming students and their parents are invited to campus for a day-long program, and training for Orientation Leaders (OLs) lasts for three days before fall NSO begins. Th is year, for the fi rst time, Orienta-tion Captains (OCs) moved in two days before that.

Four students are selected during the winter each year to be Orientation Coordinators, a full-time job over the summer. OSL&CD does not release salary fi gures, but the application form for the position off ered a com-pensation package of $6,500 for each coordinator (including meals), with the further benefi t of summer hous-ing. Th e four coordinators are each expected to work 10 hours per week during the Spring 2011 semester and then 40 hours per week from May until August. Th is year, OSL&CD created a new full-time position, direc-tor of the Transition Year Experience, that will “provide more support and resources to the orientation coordina-tors,” according to Christopher Rod-gers, dean of students at Rose Hill, and Alanna Nolan, assistant dean of Student Leadership and Community Development, who submitt ed a joint statement over email.

“Seeing how my experience was when I was a freshman, being a com-muter I felt isolated, so I felt the only way to improve it was to work inside it,” de los Santos said, indicating that monetary compensation was not his primary motivation.

Phil Bellissimo, GSB ’12, another one of the coordinators, said that while the paid work “is an incentive,” he was eager to work with de los Santos, Em-ily Amato, FCRH ’12 and Melissa Maturo, GSB ’12, a team with which he has collaborated previously.

OC Chrissy Ryan, FCRH ’13, has volunteered for NSO two years in a row aft er feeling she was not aware of “everything that was off ered” in her own freshman year.

“Primarily, I wanted to share my Fordham experience with people coming in their fi rst year,” Ryan said. “I can infl uence their fi rst year and make

theirs bett er.”In addition to such altruistic moti-

vations, there are other incentives for the roughly 200 students who vol-unteer during NSO each year. Ryan talked about the allowance for an early move-in granted to the student volun-teers, and many OCs and OLs fi nd camaraderie in their work.

“We have training, which can be boring, but I really like move-in day,” Nora Walsh-DeVries, FCRH ’12 said.

Reactions to the content of the training sessions are mixed.

“Some of it could be consolidated,” Walsh-DeVries said. “It’s a lot of days and a lot of hours sitt ing there gett ing talked at. Some of those things are nec-essary. You’re dealing with more sensi-tive issues, there’s still some things that are helpful for us to be aware of.”

“A part of orientation training is always going to be about distributing facts about Fordham and information students simply need to know,” Rod-gers and Nolan said.

De los Santos and Bellissimo real-ize the diffi culties of making all their programming interactive, including presentations from Fordham depart-ments like Career Services, Counsel-ing Services and Sodexo.

“We don’t have a choice,” Bellis-simo said. “Even if it’s diffi cult to get through, even if it’s just one OC who has to address a psychological issue, we have to do it.”

In addition to the presentations, there are events aimed at “fun” and community-building, according to de los Santos.

“We tried to spice things up this year,” he said, referring to excursions like a trip to New Roc City in New Rochelle, N.Y. that the OCs went on the night before training started. New Roc City is entertainment complex of-fering activities such as bowling, mini golf and video games. On the fi rst night of the regular leader training, the OLs and OCs participated in a game of laser tag in Lombardi, and the following night, OSL&CD brought an all-you-can-eat Pinkberry cart to McGinley Lawn.

“Th ey should at least make sure people are gonna go to it — a lot of the night things people just kind of blow off ,” Ryan said. “But they’re worth it to entertain us coordinators and leaders and keep us together, but I think there would be a way to do that would be less costly.”

A new addition to training this year was an outside presentation called “Dance Floor Th eory,” an interactive

program addressing social dynamics in building a community. According to the company’s Web site, the presen-tation costs $2,800, a relatively mod-est sum as compared to many of the speakers brought in by student organi-zations throughout the school year.

“It was useful in the sense that he gave us some interesting things to think about,” Walsh-DeVries said. “Th ey weren’t necessarily ground-breaking suggestions.”

“Variety is important in training,” Rodgers and Nolan said. “While many sessions are meant to provide OLs with education and information for the incoming class, teambuilding and leadership activities are vital in creating a cohesive team of volunteers to welcome our new students […] We have to remember that these students are volunteers and dedicate a substan-tial amount of time to Fordham and the freshman class—the least we can do is have some recreation time built into training.”

“It’s a way to keep them motivated and excited,” Bellissimo said.

“Training is fun and we give [the OCs and OLs] a lot of stuff ,” de los Santos added. “It’s prett y rewarding for them. We tried to implement break times, and fun things in between, like games and prizes.”

Prizes included gift cards for iTunes and Applebee’s, as well as MTA cards.

Walsh-DeVries said she feels most validated in her work through the per-sonal interactions she has during train-ing and orientation.

“You do feel appreciated, we have a lot of free meals, Dean Rodgers and Fr. McShane come in and are really thank-ful to all of us,” she said. “Parents will come up to you and say ‘I’ve dropped my kids off at four other schools and no one’s ever put on a show like this.’”

Yet not all students are satisfi ed with their NSO experiences, though numbers provided by Rodgers and Nolan from OSL&CD show that from 2005-10, students surveyed at the end of NSO reported, on average, scores between 3.5-4.0 on a scale of 5.0 when evaluating their overall experiences.

Nicole Casey, FCRH ’13 and an OL, for one, was turned off from even applying to be an OL a year ago on the basis of her own NSO experience as a freshman.

“I had a terrible time at orientation,” she said. “All I remember is that we had to go to a lot of presentations.”

Kelli Walsh, GSB ’15, whose NSO experience was shortened due to the hurricane, said that the relationships

she built with fellow students during orientation were “very superfi cial.”

“Every second was scheduled and then we had to go to another boring talk,” she said. “Not that many speak-ers were necessary […] I didn’t like it because by the end of it, you’re just like ‘I want to meet new people.’”

“We ask parents and students each year how they like the program as well, and we’re very happy with the response,” Rodgers and Nolan said. “However, we are restlessly commit-ted to improving the program each year.”

In the context of the $325 fee, Mag-gie Shelledy, FCRH ’14, said she was unsure about the content of NSO it-self.

“From the amount that I hear peo-ple who don’t enjoy orientation I feel like that money could be put to bet-ter use through building community, not necessarily on someone lecturing on inspirational pump-up things,” she said. “Some of the information I got from orientation was really useful … but some of that information, like se-curity stuff , was things that I shouldn’t necessarily have to pay for.”

Every school has its own version of orientation, and costs at other institu-tions and formats of such program-ming vary greatly. Boston College off ers three-day summer orientations where students are put up in dorms temporarily at a cost of over $400. Georgetown, which holds orientation in the four days leading up to the be-ginning of the academic year, charges a $185 fee.

Urban Plunge at Fordham, a pre-orientation program of almost identi-cal length to NSO and run through the Dorothy Day Center, in contrast, costs freshmen $70. It, like NSO, pro-vides meals for the freshman, a total of seven over the course of its two and a half days and has an extensive three-day training for the upperclassmen student leaders.

Th ough part of NSO includes an academic orientation day, the $325 fee does not fund academic programming, according to Dr. Robert Parmach, as-sistant dean for freshmen in Fordham College, and Dr. Greer Jason, assistant dean and advisor for freshman in the Gabelli School of Business.

“To be frank, the only real money we spend during NSO events would be for Convocation, which again, Fordham College picks up the bill,” Parmach said. “New Student Orienta-tion, for the most part, is fi nanced and run by OSL&CD and Student Aff airs, and arguably so, because those events are not academic ones.”

Rodgers and Nolan say that they will “continue to refi ne the planning and implementation process of the First Year Experience and revised New Student Orientation initiative.”

Ryan, who admitt ed that she has seen “freshmen be miserable walking around, knowing that they have to go sit in an auditorium for four hours,” also added, “If freshmen had a more active role in orientation they’d get more out of it.”

“I think there are aspects worth paying for,” Ryan said. “I’d pay to see Ed Gerety.”

Karamjit Singh, FCRH ’12, took a more matt er-of-fact approach when remembering his own NSO experi-ence in light of the $325 fee.

“I knew it was something, I just didn’t know it was that much,” he said. “But there’s no such thing as free lunch.”

ORIENTATION, FROM PAGE 1New Student Orientation organized programs for incoming freshmen students during their fi rst week at Fordham.

PHOTO BY STEPHEN MOCCIA/THE RAM

NEWS SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 3

Fr. Schroth Shares Brief History of Fordham

Fordham Professor Goes Wireless with Project WISDM

By CAITLIN DEGNANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Adventure was the major theme of Father Raymond Schroth’s, S.J. lecture this past Th ursday when he spoke to a gathering of university students about his time spent at Fordham over the years (some sto-ries of which are also recounted and refl ected in his book, Fordham: A History and Memoir). Fr. Schroth’s speech followed a timeline of his personal experiences, ranging from the time he entered the University as a young man in the 1950s to the present day. Th e students in att en-dance not only enjoyed Schroth’s humorous stories but also departed later with more knowledge and ap-preciation of our University’s rich past.

Fr. Schroth has played many roles in the Fordham community over the decades. A former student and editor of Th e Ram, Schroth re-turned as a professor for the com-munications department in the 1970s and later assumed the posi-tion of assistant dean at Rose Hill. Schroth’s descriptions of his college days portrayed his active involve-ment in student life and academics through his writing and editing for Th e Ram, as well as his frequent vis-its with professors outside of class, with whom he formed valuable, lasting friendships. Many students were surprised by the similarities between past and present college life.

“It’s amazing to see how students of 60 years ago have the same ex-periences we are having now at school,” Michael DiTanna, FCRH ’13, said. “It brings us so much more in touch with Fordham’s tra-dition.”

Schroth off ered a unique in-sight into Fordham to members of the audience, from the viewpoint of not only a former student, but also of a teacher and administra-tor. Th e key to success, he claimed,

is to be open to adventure in order to discover things about yourself, others and the world. It is clear that Schroth lives according to his own advice. As a student, he spent his junior year in Paris (writing as a foreign correspondent for Th e Ram), and later, as a journalist, he traveled frequently to cover contro-versial issues, such as the fi rst Gulf War in Iraq.

When asked why he chose to write Fordham: A History and Mem-

oir, Schroth explained, “I wanted to write about something I love.”

Since Fr. Schroth graduated from Fordham, he has watched the school grow in several ways. Not only has the school physically evolved, but the quality of a Jesuit education and the exceptional reputation of the school also continues to thrive. Th e idea of a “Fordham family,” intro-duced to Schroth by the president of the school, Laurence McGinley, in an address to the student body

during his time at Fordham, is still applicable to our school com-munity today. Fr. Schroth’s book, covering a timespan of almost 140 years, off ers a detailed description of Fordham’s past.

Before ending his lecture, Schroth concluded with a few words of advice for the audience: to read the classics (namely, C.S. Lewis’ Th e Four Loves), always to challenge yourself for your own sake and to love and seek God in all things.

“Hearing an alumni share his memories of Fordham, and com-paring those memories to what goes on at Fordham today, was a really interesting and new perspec-tive that I had never considered,” Alex Chin Fong, GSB ’14, said.

Schroth’s stories of success left students in att endance with a re-newed sense of motivation of which to take advantage, and to continual-ly seek opportunities to adventure presently as a Fordham student and in the future, as Fordham alumni.

By EDDIE MIKUSCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Gary Weiss, Fordham’s interim chair of the Department of Com-puter and Information Science, is seeking to add to the numerous means by which computers have altered 21st-century life.

Weiss is the leader of the Wire-less Sensor Data Mining (WIS-DM) Project, which is perfecting a smart phone application that will be able to identify a user by name, in addition to any activities that the user might be performing.

“Th e phone has a lot of diff erent sensors, and we’re going to look at a lot of them, but the one we’ve mostly focused on is the acceler-ometer,” Weiss said in describing the basis for his research. “Th at measures acceleration, which isn’t the same thing as movement, but it’s related.”

Weiss further stated that the accelerometer would specifi cally track how a phone moves, which will, in turn, reveal its owner’s movements.

“With that, we can learn pat-terns in how you move, so we can identify you as opposed to some-body else, as well as what you are doing,” said Weiss.

As evidence for the viability of his project, Weiss cited an experi-ment in which accelerometer data was collected from 36 Fordham students. Th e students were identi-fi ed perfectly using only the data.

In addition to identifying peo-ple, the WISDM Project is seeking to determine height, weight and gender via smart phones.

“It’s amazing to see how students of 60 years ago have

the same experiences we

are having now at school.”

MICHAEL DITANNA, FCRH ’13

Dr. Gary Weiss Uses Wireless

Sensors in Smartphones to

Identify Users

According to Weiss, the theory that a taller person will have a lon-ger stride than a shorter person should be enough for the acceler-ometer to determine height.

Th e application is currently bet-ter able to determine somebody’s general height (meaning whether they are short, average or tall) as opposed to his or her specifi c height in feet, however.

Th e technology that enables this

grand research project consists of several sensors that already exist on most smart phones. Accord-ing to Weiss, sensors will become more common and aff ordable in the future.

“Almost every smart phone has an accelerometer, light sensor, GPS and other ways to measure your location,” said Weiss. Such sensors did not exist on old phones.

As a result of these sensors, Weiss said he believed smart phones could be made smarter through the capability of knowing what someone was doing.

“If it knows that you’re jogging and that you don’t like gett ing phone calls when you’re jogging, it may immediately send it to your voicemail,” Weiss said as an ex-ample of how smart phones could operate around somebody’s daily

activities.Weiss expected that his smart

phone application, ActiTracker, would be ready in a few weeks. Th is application will provide infor-mation about what activities a user performed during the day and can be used to monitor their overall ac-tivity level.

In the meantime, he has posted pie charts on the ActiTracker web-site (actitracker.com) that demon-strate anonymous data from his experiments.

One of ActiTracker’s potential benefi ts involves health and fi t-ness.

“You can see how much activity

you get,” Weiss said. “You can see, if you’re a parent and your kid has a cell phone, how much activity your kid gets.”

Th e possible impact of Acti-Tracker on health has allowed Weiss to obtain grants from the National Science Foundation and from Google.

Other fi nancing for the project has come from Fordham Faculty Research Grants, Fordham Under-graduate Faculty Research Grants, and a program for Summer Sci-ence Interns.

Th is summer, fi ve students worked full-time with Weiss on the WISDM project.

“Being in the experiment is ac-tually really cool,” Jeff Lockhart, FCRH ’14, said before a planned WISDM experiment that involved data collection from people walk-ing around Eddie’s Parade. “Th ere’s a lot of people who get worried or anxious as to whether or not they are doing it right, and the whole point of the experiment is to see what people normally do.”

Weiss got involved in the WIS-DM Project because he believed it would be a way for him to make data mining, a part of the com-puter science fi eld in which he has particular expertise, more interest-ing for students.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DR. GARY WEISS

Dr. Gary Weiss and students participate in Project WISDM, using wireless sensors in cell phones to identify the user.

Father Schroth, a graduate of Fordham, talks about his time spent at the University and shares stories about his past.

PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM

NEWSPAGE 4 • THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Fordham-Pretoria Promises to be Benefi cial Alignment

Philippine President Receives Honorary Degree

Fordham Fest Celebrates Tradition

PRESIDENT, FROM PAGE 1Shane, said.

Dr. Nancy Busch, vice president of Academic Aff airs, presented the can-didate to McShane.

Th e honorary Doctor of Laws de-gree is the University’s highest hon-or, given to President Aquino on the 90th anniversary of Fordham’s ties with the Philippine nation and the Ateneo de Manila University.

“Fordham University is part of Philippine history . . . Th e people of the Philippines can look forward to the future with hope and confi -dence,” Busch said.

Aquino’s mission since his election in 2010 has been to make the govern-ment an institution that the people trust aft er years of corruption and dictatorships. He promotes govern-ment that is available to the people in addition to an economy based on free and fair competition. Aquino’s government focuses on generating jobs and providing health care and housing to those who need it most.

McShane bestowed the degree on Aquino to roaring applause and yet another standing ovation.

Aquino then took the stage to explain his mission to the audience. He spoke of watching his country as it was pushed to the edge of ruin by dictators who abused the people who lived in constant fear.

“To obey your conscience is to im-munize yourself against the eff ects of fear . . . you fi nd out that you are not alone,” he said. “‘You are not alone’ was the mott o of the revolution. To-gether, our people made a stand.”

Aft er fi nally throwing off the shadow of tyranny, the Filipino people draft ed a new constitution. It symbolized a large change overall in the att itude of the government. Th e elected offi cials became servants to the people instead of their masters. Th e Aquino administration also raised the minimum wage and con-tinues to bring resources directly to the people.

“If we are indeed our brother’s keeper, then government is too crucial a task to leave strictly in the hands of offi cials,” he said. “Th e Phil-ippine people have truly discovered that that power is theirs. We have had our periods of darkness, but now we are living in the light.”

Fordham Flava, the Satin Dolls, the Ramblers and the Mimes & Mummers. According to Ander-son, the inclusion of the Showcase was assured as the event was a tra-ditional favorite of the week.

“I wanted to have a good balance of the traditional and the new, and I wanted to make sure the week encompassed every aspect of the University,” Anderson said.

Also in keeping with tradition was the lecture, held on Th ursday in Tognino Hall, which was pre-sented this year by the Rev. Ray-mond Schroth, S.J. FCRH ’55, former Fordham professor and current associate editor at Amer-ica magazine, the Jesuit weekly. Schroth spoke about his time at Fordham and what he learned while here.

“[He] spoke about the three les-sons he learned at Fordham: how

to read, how to write and how to love. His lecture essentially sum-marized the entire purpose of the week — to remind students how invaluable your four years at Ford-ham are, and how those lessons will stay with you for the rest of your life,” Anderson said.

“Maroon Zone,” new this year, occurred aft er the conclusion of Schroth’s Th ursday lecture. Th is was a pep rally type of event, co-sponsored by Athletics and So-dexo, featuring free entry to the Marketplace, performances by the cheerleading squad and contests and promotions.

Friday’s event is perhaps most associated with the run-up to Homecoming Weekend: the Presi-dent’s Ball, sponsored by the Of-fi ce of the President. As in years past, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, was joined by various student af-

fairs staff to welcome students to the ball, held this year in the Lom-bardi Fieldhouse.

Other events were sponsored by diff erent clubs, as USG wanted to involve as many campus organi-zations as possible. Th e Campus Activities Board put on one of its traditional “Free Fridays,” bring-ing a manicurist to the lobby of the McGinley Center. El Grito de Lares and Academia Hispaña, two campus groups celebrating Latino culture, co-programmed a “His-panic Heritage dinner” held in O’Keefe Commons. Peer Educa-tors took students on a “pizza tour” of the surrounding neighborhood, and the Commuting Students’ As-sociation brought their version of the Cash Cab to campus, called “Swag Van.”

“By hosting a combination of traditional and new events, we were able to grab students att en-

tion without forgett ing the pur-pose of Th e Fest,” Anderson said.

Anderson hopes that USG can get more groups involved in future Fordham Weeks.

“I would like to see even more involvement across the campus,” she said. “I was able to bring in Fordham’s main organizations and clubs, but I feel that the week could benefi t from having events or ac-tivities sponsored by all organiza-tions, from academic clubs to the Ram Van offi ce. Th e Fest is meant to give every student and organiza-tion on campus an opportunity to show their Fordham pride, and I’d love to see even more participation next year.”

Bryan Matis, GSB ’12 and ex-ecutive vice president of USG, concurred.

“Ideally we would want every club and student group to partici-pate in some way,” he said. “I think Liz did a phenomenal job reaching out to as many groups as possible. We hope to see more involve-ment next year. Although USG is a policy government and is not always involved in programming, I’m proud of how well USG rose to the occasion to put on a week of remarkable programming.”

Overall, both Anderson and Matis were pleased with the week.

“Th e Fest was an opportunity to celebrate Fordham as a whole, ev-erything that the University has to off er,” Anderson said.

“Th is year Festivus Fordha-mensis successfully accomplished its main goal, which was to bring together the entire University student body in order to promote school spirit and pride in the week leading up to homecoming,” Matis said. “I think that this year’s Ford-ham Fest will be a model for future USGs as they consider new ways to build community and enhance student life at Fordham.”

FORDHAM FEST, FROM PAGE 1

change and development, and in-ternational associations at the pro-fessional, institutional level are all part of the long-term vision of the Fordham-Pretoria partnership.

At the heart of it is creating an undergraduate study abroad op-portunity with a service-learning component, which Freedman said will make Fordham stand out, es-pecially among Jesuit universities.

Nancy Busch, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sci-ences, is looking to help Pretoria develop its faculty at the graduate level. GSAS was fi rst school within the University to have a relation-ship with Pretoria, and Busch has been working to promote areas of exploration beyond the initial IPED emerging markets course such as theology, humanitarian af-fairs and ethics.

“It’s not just giving to them, it’s learning what they have to teach us,” Busch said.

She also said that developing the Fordham-Pretoria connection is in line with her goals for the graduate school: more concern with global-ization, interdisciplinary focus and sensitivity to Fordham’s mission of social justice.

Michael Latham, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, shares Freedman’s passion for shift -ing the focus of study abroad to en-compass more non-traditional op-tions like Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

“Ultimately, it is in these areas where these great human chal-lenges are unfolding in terms of economic development, trying to create good governance,” Latham said. “We can learn a lot there and [. . .] to the extent that we can engage seriously on these ques-tions of poverty and development, these are the things that as a Jesuit institution we should be doing, and these are the places where we should be. It’s important for our students to have exposure to these challenges because these are the challenges that are going to shape the next century. If we’re serious about educating students who are going to be global leaders, as our mission statement says, these are exactly the places we should be sending them.”

For the past four years, Pretoria has served as the site of a summer Emerging Markets economics course for graduates and under-graduates taught by Henry Swal-

benberg, Ph.D., director of the In-ternational Political Economy and Development (IPED) graduate program, and Booi Th emeli, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics. Students from Pretoria have come to Fordham the past two summers for similar courses. Administrators from Fordham have visited Preto-ria on several occasions over the past couple of years and vice-versa, including Freedman and Latham. In June, Fordham played host to Professor Cheryl de la Rey, vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Pretoria (equivalent to president of the University), with whom Freedman said he plans to work closely.

“Her reputation not only in South Africa, but beyond in other countries in Africa, will really al-low us to explore how we use these programs,” Freedman said of de la Rey.

In addition to de la Rey’s creden-tials, the University of Pretoria itself is well placed to serve as a gateway to other African countries.

“Because of Pretoria’s already established network of extensive relationships with other sub-Sa-hara African institutions of higher education, there exist the strong

potential to extend curriculum and faculty development well beyond [. . .] New York and Pretoria into the rest of Africa,” Th emeli said.

Some students fi nd this po-tential att ractive, including Katy Raymond, FCRH ’13, who plans to participate in the Fordham-Pre-toria program’s inaugural year aft er completing the emerging markets course in August.

“Th e University of Pretoria and Fordham have truly created an in-valuable network of students who are aware of the need to participate in a global world and helped en-courage these future leaders who care and are more aware about what happens in the world beyond their campus,” Raymond said. “I feel very lucky to be a part of the program that I think it is an incred-ible model for future study abroad endeavors.”

“Fordham’s name is on the con-tinent,” Th emeli said, continuing to note that while the benefi ts may not be immediately tangible, every-one will soon see the positive ef-fects of this collaboration. “We’ve got our foot in the door there.”

“I have made a personal commit-ment to South Africa,” Freedman said.

SOUTH AFRICA, FROM PAGE 1

Festivus Fordhamensis raised the spirits of students with events during the week, including a free meal at the caf.PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM

Fordham awarded Philippine Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III an honorary Doctorate of Laws Monday.

WIKIMEDIA

NEWS SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 5

McDermott Conducts Research on Gender Traits in Politics

Manresa Program Moves to Martyrs’ CourtBy HARRY MacCORMACK

STAFF WRITER

Th e Manresa program has called Tierney Hall home for a number of years; this year, the faculty decided it was time for a change. Now, the Manresa Pro-gram will call the Jogues wing of Martyrs’ Hall its new home.

Administrators did not present this decision without hesitation. Master of the House for the Man-resa program, Fr. Phil Florio, S.J., was against the move at fi rst.

“Initially I didn’t want to see the Manresa program moved,” Florio said. “I was opposed, but now I’m thrilled we’re here,” a sentiment was shared by Resident Assistant Alex Avalos, FCRH ’13.

“Initially I lamented the fact that the Manresa program would have to lose such a nice residence hall,” Avalos said. “But now I’m happy because there is a lot more of a connection to the other fresh-man halls.”

Th is decision was made in an eff ort to bring all the freshmen together in one place. Concur-rent to this, the decision was made in order to eliminate the isolation experienced by Manresa scholars in the past, as Tierney is far removed from the rest of the freshman community. Th is was rectifi ed by bringing the Man-resa program into the fold of the “freshman quad”.

“I think there are connections to the larger community that last year Tierney didn’t have because we were so far away,” Avalos said.

“Th ere’s defi nitely a lot more guests signing in, we use at least two to three guest sheets a night, which is good because I could count the number of guests we had [last year] in Tierney on two hands.”

Th e residents also seem to feel connected to the rest of the fresh-men.

“I have friends that live in South or in Goupil,” Tommy Landers, FCRH ’15, said. “I think the fact

that we’re in Martyrs’ and were connected physically to two other dorms has helped that.”

Despite the move, however, Manresa has not seemed to have lost any of its tight-knit atmo-sphere, according to Florio.

“Th e dynamic has not changed,” Florio said. “People are really happy to be here.”

With most of the RA staff being composed of either veterans from Tierney or previous Manresa

scholars, the staff is committ ed to providing programming that builds the same community that residents of Tierney benefi tt ed from. Programming like “Discur-so” provides an intimate sett ing for students to discuss various issues ranging from 9/11 to sex’s role in faith.

Th e staff is not the only one committ ed to building a commu-nity, however. Th e entire Jogues wing was renovated to accommo-

date the Manresa program. New lounges that double as classrooms have been built and furnished with brand new couches and TVs, giving students an excellent space both to learn and unwind.

“Tierney had been craft ed and constructed for Manresa, with the classroom space and the lounges and the kitchens, and they did it even nicer over here in Jogues,” Florio said.

While Jogues is the new home of the Manresa scholars, for the staff and Fr. Florio, the new build-ing was a big change and a tran-sition that moved along quite smoothly apparently, overlooking a few hiccups.

“Th e fi rst week, I couldn’t fi gure my way around here. And there is a fourth fl oor I didn’t know exist-ed for a few days,” Florio said.

Overall, the move from Tierney to Jogues has proven to be an ex-cellent one for Manresa, keeping much of what made the program so appealing and eff ective while rectifying the issues inherent with keeping the program in Tierney. Despite much reservation, the move to Jogues has shown that a proper home is where the heart is.

“Th e dynamic has not changed. People are really

happy to be here.”FATHER PHIL FLORIO, S.J.

By SARAH AMENDOLASTAFF WRITER

Dr. Monika McDermott , an associate professor in the politi-cal science department, recently received a grant from Fordham University to research the role of gender in politics. In her research, McDermott focuses on the varying levels of masculinity and feminin-ity in both voters and candidates, and strives to resolve that gender qualities are more important than biological gender.

McDermott , who served as an election consultant for both Th e New York Times and CBS News, began by conducting an Internet survey of Americans to measure the amounts of masculine and feminine traits present in average citizens and how this aff ected their votes and political affi liations. Her research revealed that the Demo-cratic Party is associated with feminine traits, as their policies tend to be more compassionate. Th e Republican Party possesses masculine traits, centering on in-dividualism that leads people to be responsible for their own success.

McDermott feels Representa-tive Michele Bachmann is the most interesting politician. For McDermott , Bachmann represents typical feminine traits in that she is kindhearted, family-centered and has even mentioned her miscar-riage in speeches numerous times; however, her feminine traits con-tradict her Republican Party af-

fi liation. She supports its staunch, conservative policies that are oft en viewed as less compassionate than those of Democrats. Her dual na-ture helps her appeal to voters on both ends of the gender trait spec-trum.

Much can be made of the role of gender and race in the 2008 elec-tion. McDermott believes that, al-though voters were more informed and beyond stereotyping, Obama’s race hurt him more than gender

hurt Hillary Clinton. McDermott believes Obama was in a good po-sition, as an idealist and an opti-mist when people were frustrated with the government.

For McDermott , ambitious Hil-lary Clinton represented mascu-line traits, making a palpable con-trast with Obama. However her masculine virtues helped her in a realm where sexism still persists and people hold an implicit bias against women, believing women

are controlled by their emotions. Additionally, as McDermott point-ed out, it is easier to be a woman in the Democratic Party. Clinton’s crying during a speech was given much att ention, which helpedsoft -en her image, but although as she kept her tough persona, she was still able to make herself appear compassioniate.

McDermott had much to inter-pret when it came to 2008 Repub-lican vice president nominee Sarah Palin. She was strong, driven and a self-described “Momma Grizzly,” thus taking on the identity of a woman with masculine att ributes in government. McDermott sur-mises that Bachmann would have much to gain from taking on Sarah Palin’s aggressive toughness. Mc-Dermott says Palin’s weakness was her insecurity, always seeking pub-lic acceptance instead of exhibiting the confi dent nature required by holding a high offi ce.

Although unfair that women are judged on appearance, it is some-thing to expect in our society. Fortunately for Palin, people re-sponded well to her looks, which McDermott believed aided her campaign popularity.

Religion is another area McDer-mott researched in the political spectrum. Former Massachusett s Governor Mitt Romney’s quest for a presidential bid was oft en over-shadowed by his Mormon beliefs, stereotyped with negative conno-tations. Realizing it was in his best interest to keep his faith personal,

he tried not to build his identity around it. When his father, George Romney, ran for president, how-ever, the elder Romney was pub-licly seen going to services, and his religion was more central in his campaign.

McDermott believes a parallel can be drawn to the signifi cance of the American people of the 1960s electing a Catholic president. Th e diff erence is that Catholicism is more widespread and well-known than Mormonism is today, mak-ing the stereotypes easier to break. Kennedy strengthened his charac-ter by showing his devotion to the religion, while assuring the people that he kept his spirituality sepa-rate from the presidency. Although Romney made the same promise, people were more skeptical.

McDermott ’s research shows the many aspects politics can be viewed from. She proved that many voters over-generalize and over-simplify the qualities candi-dates have, and much insight can be gained by looking at the deeper meaning of the characteristics they possess.

“I was astounded to learn that research indicated that implicit at-titudes are highly likely to indicate future voting behaviors,” Justin Gillis, FCRH ’13, who assisted McDermott , said. “In previous studies similar to this, participants tended to exhibit preferences to their own race, gender or ethnic-ity, despite their explicit condem-nation of such practices.”

Jogues was fi tted with new study lounges and a kitchen (seen above) for the Manresa Program’s move to Martyrs’ Court.

PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM

PHOTO BY NORA MALLOZZI/THE RAM

Professor McDermott is conducting research about gender traits in politics.

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PAGE 7SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

College Radio Continues to Play a Vital Role

WFUV, an NPR radio affi liate, serves the Fordham community and employs both students and full-time professionals.RAM ARCHIVES

Drug Testing at the University Level Infantilizes Students

By RORY MASTERSONSTAFF WRITER

A recent New York Times arti-cle detailed the plight of WRVU, Vanderbilt University’s on-cam-pus radio station, and pinpoint-ed that station as exemplifying the state of college radio today. Vanderbilt Student Commu-nications sold its broadcasting license for WRVU to the local public radio station, bringing an end to the familiar alternative rock format for which WRVU had become known around Nashville, Tenn.

Similar circumstances are en-veloping college radio stations all over the United States, caus-ing something of a backlash and at least a debate over the condi-tion of college radio and the col-lege radio format. It becomes a question of whether the lack of mainstream appeal is enough to keep a listener’s interest beyond novelty. Some have said that col-lege radio is dead or dying in the face of NPR buyouts and a major shift to Internet broadcasting.

“Death is the wrong word; mutating might be better,” one former college radio DJ, who preferred to remain anonymous, said. “The move to the Internet is as much a survival tactic as anything.”

College radio bred the likes of Hootie & the Blowfish, courtesy of the University of South Caro-

lina’s WUSC in Columbia, S.C., in addition to R.E.M. from Ath-ens, Ga., home to the University of Georgia, while the Smiths probably owe a tremendous debt to college radio for expanding their popularity in America. It was easier in the 1980s and ’90s to gain consistent listeners, of course, with Internet streaming in its infancy.

Changing tides in radio may require the move to Internet streaming, as more people in ad-ministrative positions become convinced that technologically inclined students do not have the patience to listen to FM or AM radio beyond the instances when they forget their iPods for their cars.

Do not scoff at the notion of Internet radio just yet, however. In the case of Loyola University in Chicago, a lost license provid-ed an opportunity for the found-ing of the Chicago Independent Radio Project, or CHIRP, which broadcasts from the Internet ex-clusively and plays everything from Men Without Hats to Mud-dy Waters to Mastodon.

CHIRP retains some of the college radio aesthetic, proving that, at least for the moment, In-ternet radio can be an effective way of reaching an audience. It provides listeners with the kind of content they could not find on regular broadcast radio, with the only comparable alternative per-

By CELESTE KMIOTEKEXECUTIVE EDITOR

Everyone has seen “Drug-Free School Zone” signs, and, hopefully, most have noted the redundancy of claiming a drug-free zone in what should be a drug-free country. While most colleges do not feature these signs, they nonetheless expect their students to refrain from il-legal or illicit substances; how-ever, excepting certain athletic programs at such schools as Duke University and Michigan State University, most colleges have resisted actively weeding through students to find offend-ers. Recently, Linn State Tech-nical College broke the norm when it announced to incoming and prospective students that it would be conducting mandatory “drug screenings.”

Home to 1,200 students and located about 100 miles outside St. Louis, Mo., Linn State, a pub-lic two-year college, decided this past spring that all first-year stu-dents and those either returning from a break or returning for a certification are required to sub-mit to drug testing, which will be able to identify 11 drugs, includ-ing marijuana but not alcohol. Those who test positive are re-quired to take a drug-prevention test and to be tested again in 45 days. All students tested are re-quired to foot the $50 bill.

An article in The Washington

Post states that, according to Linn State, this rule is meant to ensure the safety of other students, since the college specializes in courses including aircraft maintenance, heavy engine repair and nuclear technology. Furthermore, the college claims that it is preparing its students for a drug-free work-place. Unsurprisingly, people protested, culminating with the American Civil Liberties Union filing a lawsuit on behalf of six students, claiming unconstitu-tionality through violation of the fourth amendment, commonly known as the right to privacy.

While Linn State may be vocal about its new policies and its in-tentions, what it is not announc-ing is its implied attitude toward its students: that they are not worthy of trust.

When colleges accept stu-dents, they impart the message that they feel each student is deserving of trust and the right to be treated as an adult. Re-garding some students, this is a misguided decision; there will always be students who flout the rules, whether those be federal mandates or school regulations. Those students who abuse this trust, who hurt others and who are careless enough to be caught, by all means should be punished; they have ceded their right to this trust. When a student robs a lo-cal ATM or defaces school prop-erty, he or she is silently admit-ting that he or she is not ready to

function in the adult world and is not yet ready to be at an institu-tion that trains students for entry into such a world and lacks the time or resources to re-teach ba-sic ethics.

Still, universities do not go to each student’s dorm room, track-ing the source of each student’s cash and searching for spray-paint cans and baseball bats. Be-side the incredible waste of re-sources and personnel this would require, universities assume they can count on their students’ in-nocence, only needing to investi-gate when there is due cause.

Why should drugs be treated any differently? Yes, drug use is more difficult to prove than theft. Only the most trained doc-tors and professionals can decid-edly identify whether and what a patient has been using. Para-phernalia, and the drugs them-selves, are transportable and thus can be consumed, snorted, smoked or injected off-campus. Drugs can be hidden, and only select (though often the most common) types can be detected through a noticeable odor. Yes, this leaves drug testing as the only viable option to prosecute students.

Yet, are the efforts to obtain drug tests and the resources needed worth it? Drugs are a so-cietal problems (barring the al-leged economic benefits of put-ting jobs, literally, on the street); there is no denying that users’

friends and family are affected. The comparatively few who do drugs liberally, however, are the users who actually create wide-spread problems; should the casual pot-smoker really have to endure a drug test? If someone is smart enough to avoid getting caught, while maintaining good grades and avoiding attention from any concerned party, should he or she have to be rounded up with the others? Wouldn’t re-sources be better spent hunting for the source of the problem, the dealers?

Furthermore, according to a 2010 study conducted by the London-based Independent Sci-entific Committee on Drugs, al-cohol is the “most harmful drug.” While this is certainly a refutable claim, it does highlight the dif-ficulty in conducting drug tests on students; where is the line drawn? If colleges test for illegal and illicit drugs, should they test for legal drugs such as alcohol, which can be detected in urine for anywhere from a few hours to a few days? What if the student is 21 or older? What about states which allow medical marijuana; how many people will then be privy to students’ medical histo-ries to see if they have a prescrip-tion?

According to USA Today, 21.5 percent of college-age students use drugs, though it does not quantify their level of use. That leaves at least 78.5 percent of

innocent students at an average college who will still be asked to send bodily fluids, which test for countless other diseases, medica-tions and more, to an unknown lab.

In a generation taught never to give away a password, never to cede medical or identifying in-formation and never to trust the unknown, this is naturally some-thing to be feared. Especially at a public university, where students are accustomed to a higher level of freedoms and privacy, it is unlikely that suspicion will dis-sipate anytime soon.

This article is not supporting drug use; drugs are, for the most part, illegal for a reason. This article is supporting the treat-ment of students as adults. Com-mon sense is a life skill that has no place being taught in a class-room; just as graduates know enough not to bring a rifle onto a plane, they should also know enough not to do drugs if they work somewhere with random drug-testing. If they are caught, it is due to their own careless-ness, and all the better they are punished with something more than a college’s slap on the wrist.

The majority of students de-serve the right to be treated as innocent adults; let’s assume the best about us all.

Celeste Kmiotek, FCRH ’12, is an English and communications and media studies major from Townsend, Mass.

haps being Sirius-XM satellite radio, though Internet streaming retains the ever-important qual-ity of no cost.

A special case which I have thus far failed to mention is our own renowned and beloved WFUV. Our station is not a typical col-lege radio station, or at least in the way I view typical college radio, in that its programming is not entirely student-made and that it is NPR-affiliated. Even though the latter is true, for the

most part WFUV does a solid job of playing the wide variety of music for which college radio first became popular. On the one hand, we do provide an outlet for such programs as World Café and Echoes, two NPR staples. On the other, there are many programs with a Fordham foun-dation and focus, my personal favorite being Ceol na nGael.

It is not the time to start wor-rying about college radio, how-ever—not yet at least. While

it probably is not the way most young people find their new music anymore, it still serves enough of a purpose that it will not go away for the foreseeable future. If you remain uncon-vinced about the importance and role of college radio, just think: Where would the delicate art of being a misunderstood teenager be without the Smiths?

Rory Masterson, GSB ’14, is a business administration major from Fort Mill, S.C.

OPINIONSPAGE 8 • THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

From the Desk of Hussein Safa, Copy EditorTh e RamServing campus and

community since 1918.

Are your friends tired of hearing you complain?

Write for Th e Ram opinions section.

E-mail us at:fordhamramopinions@gmail.com

If you have an opinion about something you saw in this week’s issue of Th e Ram,

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Higher Education Is in Dire Financial Situation

Th e Ram is the University journal of record. Th e mission of Th e Ram is to provide a forum for the free and open exchange of ideas in service to the com-munity and to act as a student advocate. Th e Ram is published and distributed free of charge every Wednesday during the academic year to the Rose Hill, Lin-coln Center and Westchester campuses with a readership of 12,000. Th e Ram offi ce is located in the basement of the

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By CHRISTINE BARCELLONAOPINIONS EDITOR

There is something wrong with higher education. Its cost has risen more quickly than inflation, as jobs grow more scarce and funds dry up. For ex-ample, in 1999, Fordham cost $19,660 ($25,267 in 2010 dol-lars), according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2010, tu-ition had risen to $38,602, and in 2011, the cost has risen to $39,967; however, a new study reveals that community colleges and public universities are in a more dire position than Ford-ham and other private schools.

A 2011 Delta Cost Proj-ect report, “Trends in College Spending 1999-2009,” breaks down the disturbing patterns. In 2009, in the wake of the re-cession, both private and public four-year institutions reacted to lowered endowments and funds by tacking on an average of 4.5 percent to students’ tu-ition. This makes sense, since funds were scarce for individu-als and institutions alike. How-ever, The Chronicle reports that while many private universities’ endowments went down, they turned to other income sourc-es, and their ultimate cash and spending increased.

Though tuition has increased across the board, private univer-sities have tended to weather the recession better. The Chronicle reports that private universities used some of the increased rev-enue to offer financial aid and scholarships, and helped lessen a bit of the student burden. On the other hand, public universi-

ties faced dire cuts in state fund-ing, and were forced to use rev-enue from tuition increases to patch the gaping holes in their budget, in lieu of state funds.

More and more, students have shouldered the burden that their elders have created. The solution to a debt crisis is not increasing student debt,

decreasing educational quality or cutting their educators’ ben-efits.

According to the Huffington Post, increased tuition coupled with a 4.3 percent unemploy-ment rate for graduates has sharply increased the number of student defaults. It reports that last year’s default rate rose to 8.8 percent, up from 7 per-cent in 2008; this has prompted the Department of Education to suggest an income-based payment plan that would keep federal loan repayments at or below 15 percent of a person’s discretionary income. In 2008, the average debt for seniors with student loans was $27,650 at private institutions and $20,000 at public institutions.

Most troubling, perhaps, is

the increased burden put on stu-dents attending community col-leges and other public universi-ties. Attending a private school like Fordham is a luxury that few can afford, even with finan-cial aid; many students, wisely wanting to lessen their loan bur-den, choose to attend a commu-nity college for the first year or

two of college, and then transfer to a four-year public institution. Having the community college-public school option is vital for students, especially financially savvy ones who understand the overwhelming burden student loans can be.

The increasing cost of these schools undermines the options that students have to control or lessen their debt. For instance, the Delta Cost Project reports that, in 2009, the tuition dis-count rate for community col-lege students was only 11 per-cent, while the same figure for private bachelor’s colleges was 35 percent.

This discount rate has held steady since 1999, but as tuition increases at all institutions, the disparity between institutions

and what students must pay to attend them grows greater. Plus, private schools may direct more money toward financial aid, an option that many state-funded schools do not have.

When the recession hit, four-year institutions took a hit, but did not have to face steep cuts in many areas. On the other hand, according to “Trends in College Spending,” community college spending saw comprehensive cuts, especially in instruction.

It reports that community colleges serve the majority of students, but spend the least on each student’s education, because “private non-profit in-stitutions have set the spending bar so high it will be almost im-possible to public institutions to compete with them on the basis of resources and reputation.” The authors warn that federal and state spending cuts will only exacerbate the problem.

Higher education is beset with a host of problems. Some-how, the country must make it a priority to offer students a high-quality education for a lower price. The enormous amount of student debt and student loan defaults cannot be sustained; it is criminal to strap students with inescapable levels of debt in order to have an opportu-nity to gain an education. New trends hindering lower-cost education options only adds insult to injury, in terms of the diseased system of higher edu-cation and its costs.

Christine Barcellona, FCRH ’12, is an English major from Dallas, TX. She can be reached at cbarcellona@fordham.edu.

This is my last “From the Desk” contribution to The Ram. As a senior graduating in less than eight months (what the what?!), I feel I should be imparting some life wisdom on navigating through college, enough to fit into a serving size of one editorial. This is putting me under enormous amounts of pressure to write something that will leave you cleaning your room because your brain just exploded all over the place.

I want this article to wow you, to inspire you into action to flip the bird in the face of life and to send you on a mission to free Uganda from Joseph Kony. After you finish reading this, I want to leave you itching to go out and explore your passions, and to do whatever you like and screw the system and your parents and whoever gets in the way. I want this article to detail the 10 easy steps to get those washboard abs

you have always wanted, how to have the time of your life on a school night in New York and how to make chicken hollan-daise for four people in under twenty minutes.

I only have so much space to write this article, and I feel I should be using each word constructively. I am at a loss as to what to tell you. So with all this hype, this article is more coming off as, “Hi. This is my ‘From the Desk.’ You can read it if you want. Or not. If you want to throw it away, don’t litter, but also don’t throw it in the trash. Put it in the paper recycling bin because it’s good for the envi-ronment and Mother Nature and baby dolphins will love you. Unicorns.”

With the remaining space I have, then, I should probably just end with giving you some advice. It would be so preten-tious of me to ascend this mag-

nificent throne of advice-giving and have you all bow down before me as I grace you with my words. So maybe I will just resort to quoting wise philoso-phers that have come before us, but where would I start? There’s so many of them. Maybe I will tell you what Aristotle once said, “We are what we do repeat-edly. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” Or maybe I will share what J.K. Rowling said about failure: “Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at some-thing, unless you live so cau-tiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.” Maybe I will switch it up a bit and quote Conan O’Brien when he said, “If you can laugh at yourself loud and hard every time you fall, people will think you’re drunk.” Or maybe I will share this sage word of wisdom from Amy

Poehler, when she said, “Never put your finger…in your own a**hole,” to which Tina Fey adds through fits of laughter, “Never your own. Anybody’s but your own.” I will humbly add my own words to these wise quotes from great thinkers, and I am going to tell you not to walk around with your underwear on your head because you will walk straight into a cabinet. So Fordham Uni-versity, I feel that you are now ready to go out and ride life in whatever position you choose. And of course, “go forth and set the world on fire!” Just not in that creepy pyromaniac kind of way because it’s against the law.

“A new study reveals that community colleges and public universities are in a more dire position than Fordham and other private schools. . . Th ough

tuition has increased across the board, private universities have tended to

weather the recession bett er.”

OPINIONS SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 9

Jobs Bill: Here We Go AgainWith the American economy

as bad as it is, the idea of any new legislation to create jobs sounds great; however, there are several glaring issues with Obama’s new jobs bill. Let’s start with the mainstay, everyone’s favorite question for Obama, month-in and month-out: Who is paying for all of this?

The jobs bill is going to cost $245 billion. Another $245 bil-lion we do not have, and just as regularly as the administration is moving to spend money, they are leaving the bills at the door-steps of the upper tax bracket.

Individuals and married cou-ples who are already shelling out anywhere between 32 to 36 percent of their net income to the federal government can expect that percentage to climb another point or two, as well as kiss any deductions they had goodbye.

Part of the problem with tax-ing the rich is that no matter how much money you take, it will never be enough, at least at this pace. The federal govern-ment keeps hiking the taxes on the wealthy and making their lifestyle, that they worked hard to achieve, more and more im-possible. All the while, the bud-get is still a total nightmare. So, once again, the wealthy are being screwed, simply because they have the money.

My other gripe with this bill is that it gives people the right to sue a company for discrimina-tion against being unemployed. So, if you are out of work, and apply for a job, and don’t get it, you can get a lawyer and sue them because they didn’t hire you because you didn’t have a job.

Now, I’m sorry, but that is the most backward idea ever. I don’t think any hiring employer is discriminating against the unemployed. The unemployed are who they are trying attract in the first place. So not only does it not make sense, but it also gives the rejected poten-tial employee power to sue his would-be employer on ridicu-lous grounds.

Now, there is no telling whether or not they would win such a stupid case, but simply the cost of settling or defending themselves would be enough to discourage hiring in the first place. It isn’t all bad, however: Major payroll tax breaks would be given to hiring businesses.

This is the kind of thing that I like to see. Take the financial pressure off the businesses and let them do their thing.

Ultimately this bill is still what I would call a bad thing: lots of unnecessary spending (again), leaving the rich holding the bag (again) and one ridicu-lous discrimination law.

I applaud the tax breaks, but really, with any respectable business paying 35 percent cor-porate tax already, it isn’t re-ally a break, they are just being robbed a little less.

Bike Sharing Idea a Boon Th e Sweat of the Brow

Congress, Can You Spare a Job?

Harry MacCormackMacCormack

Aft er a frustratingly ineff ective and bitt er summer in Washington, D.C., I felt relieved as I sett led into President Obama’s jobs speech on NBC last week. Before a joint session of Congress, Obama com-manded the bickering legislature to “Pass this jobs bill now!” He was re-ferring, of course, to the American Jobs Act, the latest plan from the White House to lower the national unemployment rate.

As much fun as it was to watch the stony faces of House Republi-cans redden as the program went on, President Obama’s refreshingly forceful explanation of his new bill was a bit more compelling. Th e speech began by somberly ad-dressing the need for Keynesian economic policies to stimulate job growth, a point of great contention among Republican representatives and presidential primary candidates in recent weeks. Keynesian eco-nomics, which shaped laws that put millions of Americans back to work at the height of the Depression, as-sert that job growth can occur most when the government helps both the public and private sectors to cre-ate new jobs.

I was thoroughly impressed by a plan in the jobs bill to grant busi-nesses their much-ballyhooed tax breaks—if they created a certain number of private-sector jobs. Th ese policies were recently at-tacked by presidential hopeful Rick Perry as “an experiment on America that will never be repeated again.”

Right, I forgot about how Amer-ica was plunged into socialism aft er winning World War II and reversing the Great Dep—oh, nevermind. I know that Perry is not about to explain what an experiment is. I cer-tainly can’t explain the Earth being created in six days, as he can.

Yet economic lessons alone weren’t the only distinguishing qualities I observed. Obama’s speech possessed a winning combi-nation of strong politics and rheto-ric, two components that had been missing from the Democrats’ lack-luster performance during the debt-ceiling crisis earlier this year. Four concise words, “pass this bill now,” were repeated loudly and oft en, a verbalization of the White House’s exasperation with Congressional in-fi ghting.

At last, it appeared that President Obama was holding Congress to task for ignoring the needs of the public for so long. His references to President Lincoln’s progressive att i-tude at a time of similar disharmony implored Congressmen to put peo-ple before partisanship once again. I can only hope that his acquiescence to Republican demands to raise the debt ceiling were a bait-and-switch eff ort to pass the jobs bill.

At the very least, Congress could pass this into law for posterity. Th is week, a Pew Agency poll revealed barely one in 10 voters approve of the federal government, not one party or another, but the whole con-voluted, ineffi cient legislative pro-cess. Disillusioned Americans need to see that bipartisanship is not im-possible. Making a legitimate eff ort to create jobs is a risk they could af-ford to take.

Homeland Insecurities

Isabel Brown

Many people turn to bikes as a low-cost transportation option, as they provide exercise and do not create exhaust.MARY ALTAFFER/AP

By PATRICK DEROCHERCOPY EDITOR

The bicycle has historically held an unusual place in the American mythos. A beloved symbol of childhood, the bike is something relatively few people keep in their lives much after eighth grade. This is all beginning to change. Starting with Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., larger American cities have begun adopting bicycles as more important parts of transportation infrastructures by building bike lanes, improving public aware-ness and, especially in Chicago, maintaining dedicated-use bike trails. (Seriously, put Chicago’s Lakefront Trail on your bucket list.)

This movement has been spreading across the country, with a significant uptick in the number of Americans who bike to work. To be fair, the word “sig-nificant” is relative; according to recent Census Bureau surveys, only 0.6 percent of commuters in the United States use their bikes to reach the workplace. That said, there are multiple U.S. met-ropolitan areas (starting with Eu-gene, Ore.) where more than five percent of residents bike to work, and the number is often higher in the central cities, including all of the aforementioned municipali-ties, Honolulu and San Jose, Ca-lif.

New York City has only re-cently started to become part of the new American cycling scene, adding miles of bike lanes under the leadership of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, bike lanes which I have defended in these pages (Volume 93, Issue 4). To say that these lanes have been accepted as part of New York City’s urban fabric would be a bit disingenu-ous. Who could forget, after all, the image of dozens of Park Slope residents protesting a bike lane along Prospect Park or that of a city councilman from Queens harping about his elderly con-stituents living in constant fear of runaway cyclists?

The fact remains, however, that bicycling, both recreational and for purposes of transporta-tion, is on the rise in New York

City, where tens of thousands of people, and more every passing year, participate in events such as the Five Boro Bike Tour, Car-Free Saturdays and this borough’s very own Tour de Bronx (much more fun and scenic than it sounds). At this point, it only makes sense that we adopt something that many other bike-friendly cities have boasted for years: a bike-sharing program.

Or does it?The concept of bike sharing is

rather straightforward: Partici-pants pay for membership in the program, by the day, month or year, usually, and gain the right to rent a bike from any station in the coverage area. In most cities, the first half-hour to forty-five minutes of use are free, and pric-es scale up from there; in some cities, rental rates are lower if you have a longer-term membership. These bikes are not, it is worth noting, the sort of thing you rode around your cul-de-sac in sec-ond grade, and nor are they any-thing Lance Armstrong would be caught dead riding. They are so-called “utility bikes,” with relatively large, heavy frames, only three speeds and a frame shape that necessitates sitting upright while pedaling. They are intended for running one’s daily errands and include a basket-like structure in the front that allows for storage of purses, shopping bags and other such containers.

This is, as I said earlier, a mod-el that has been used in other American cities before, often run by Alta Bicycle Share, the Port-land, Ore.-based company that runs Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare and Boston’s Hubway. In each of these cities, the exact design of the bikes is up to the individual city. In D.C., a dis-tinctive red and yellow scheme prevails, while Boston uses green and silver. Additionally, adver-tisements can be utilized as a means of paying for the systems without using taxpayer money. This can range from ads placed on bike station maps to complete sponsorship, as it is in Boston with New Balance.

As with bike lanes, I will sing the praises of bike-sharing sys-tems. As someone who avoids

taking mass transit whenever traveling any distance less than 59th Street to Fordham, and who has no interest in owning car for at least five years after gradua-tion, a New York City bike-share is a dream come true. I had the opportunity to use Capital Bike-share while working in Washing-ton this summer, and I can tell you that nothing is quite like trading in your feet for a pair of wheels, feeling the wind in your hair and avoiding a 3-mile walk (or worse yet, bus ride) in the D.C. summer heat. There is a reason countries like Denmark and Belgium have adopted a bike-centric lifestyle, which is that you cannot beat the price and ease of using bikes over cars, especially on crowded urban streets, streets that, in the United States, are increasingly being de-signed with cyclists in mind.

Not everything about bike-sharing, however, is perfect. I cannot tell you how many times this summer I would encounter a tourist lazily pedaling along a busy thoroughfare, apparently of the opinion that the rented bike was his or her personal tour bus. (My personal favorite was the group that did this in front of the White House, oblivious to the admonitions of passing cars and pedestrians that they were about to run afoul of the Secret Service.) Then there were the wannabe-hardcore recreational cyclists from out-of-town who, in addition to being the reason I loath to admit that I bike semi-seriously, became verbally vio-lent whenever they tried to push these little bikes-that-could be-yond their design limits.

Do all of these human short-comings mean that we should not implement bike-sharing in New York City? No; the vast major-ity of casual bikers are courteous and cognizant of their surround-ings. The city should, however, take note of the failings that do exist, and do its best where other cities have failed: Educate the ca-sual bikers to the extent possible by putting safety instructions on the system maps and, if possible, on the bikes themselves.

Patrick Derocher, FCRH ’12, is an international political economy major from Loudonville, N.Y.

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during and after the Civil Rights move-ment. This policy was also meant to help alleviate past discrimination and histori-cal disadvantage.

In a way, however, affirmative action perpetuates the idea of racism. People are being judged on an aspect of themselves over which they do not have any control. This principle also combats the idea of being admitted solely on a student’s own personal, academic, extracurricular and volunteer/employment merits. With this policy in place, a minority student may be accepted to a university over a non-mi-nority student with greater merits. In the context of a university, this seems neither fair nor just.

Diversity is an important goal to achieve in a university. It expands stu-dents’ worldviews and allows them to learn more about another cultures prac-tices and traditions. If diversity comes at the price of denying a deserving student of admission, however, it becomes a hin-drance to fairness.

Race or ethnic background also does not have to be the tool by which universi-ties achieve diversity. Diversity can also be defined as economic. Fairness should be the ultimate goal, but affirmative action does not involve race alone and could con-

sider the less arbitrary factor of wealth. A school should never deny a deserving stu-dent admis-sion simply be-cause he or she comes from a

low-income family, which is why schools have introduced need-blind admissions.

The hardships and struggles students face because of their families’ low income have shaped their experiences and their worldview, thus enhancing the diversity of the university in less arbitrary ways.

There has been past discrimination in the United States, and minorities have endured hardships since the founding of this country. It is wrong and unjust not to judge a student based solely on his or her merits; affirmative action, in this way, is inherently flawed.

Ricky Bordelon, FCRH ’15, is a political science major from New Orleans, La.

OPINIONSPAGE 10 • THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Point-Counterpoint: Affi rmative Action

By CANTON WINERCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Earlier this month, the Sixth U.S. Cir-cuit Court of Appeals overturned a July 1 ruling by a three-judge panel, leaving the legality of Michigan’s ban on affirmative action hanging in uncertainty. Affirmative action is a policy that gives preference to minorities in regard to employment and education. The law, which was passed in 2006 by Michigan voters, bans affirmative action in government hiring and college admissions. The July 1 ruling found the ban to be unconstitutional, arguing that the law violates the Fourteenth Amend-ment’s equal protection clause; however, it now seems likely that the law’s consti-tutionality will remain in question until it reaches the Supreme Court.

First, minori-ties face an in-herent disad-vantage in our society. The op-portunity gap between whites and minorities remains wide, and is, in fact, expanding. A recent study by the Pew Research Center has shown that Hispan-ics and blacks have been hit harder by the recession than whites. The study reports that in 2009, white households’ median wealth was 15 times higher than Hispanic households (compared to 7 times in 2004) and 19 times higher estimated median wealth than black households (compared to 11 times in 2004).

And what is Michigan’s response to this? To ban affirmative action? Such a response is incredibly careless and short-sighted.

We must face the facts. Whites hold a disproportionately higher percentage of wealth, political offices, college diplomas and jobs in America. Making this debate about race is slightly misleading, however. Many Americans view the dispute sur-rounding affirmative action to be an issue of race, when the primary concern of the debate should be income.

Getting into college, for example, is made significantly easier when there are more resources available for assistance. A wealthy student can afford SAT/ACT tu-toring, essay preparation help, college ad-vising, etc. Poorer students simply cannot afford these same resources and, by exten-sion, end up either unable to attend col-lege at all, or attending a school that is not challenging enough for them. If and when

these students graduate, they find them-selves less able to compete in a job market full of wealthy private school graduates. Then they have children who will face the exact same challenges that they did, and then the cycle begins again.

Affirmative action absolutely has its flaws. Our country has changed dramati-cally since affirmative action was first in-stated, and racism is no longer the main issue holding minorities back—money is. Lawmakers have failed to facilitate the evolution of affirmative action legislation, and it has been consequently left in the dust.

It often seems as if there are only two sides to the debate—pro-affirmative ac-tion and anti-affirmative action—but there is a reasonable middle ground. In-stead of the belligerent approach of ban-

ning affirmative action altogeth-er, Michigan should pursue thoughtful and intelligent re-form.

A f f i r m a t i v e action legisla-tion needs to be

modified to protect economic minorities, not racial minorities.

In fact, to suggest that those who pro-posed the law banning affirmative action in Michigan were trying to fix the problem gives them too much credit. Mark Rosen-baum, professor of law at University of Michigan, calls the ban “an old-fashioned racial gerrymander that locks out Michi-gan citizens of color from the political process.”

It is not a convenient coincidence that racial minorities frequently support can-didates who oppose the neoconservatives who introduced the ban. The ban on af-firmative action in Michigan is little more than a cheap attempt to pander to the ultra-conservatives who have hijacked the Republican Party. Why propose real solu-tions when you can score cheap political points?

America has begun to overcome the pestilence of racism and is now plagued by classism. Affirmative action has become an easy scapegoat for archconservatives who fear both progress and those who are different from themselves. It may be po-litically convenient to use slash-and-burn tactics instead of comprehensive evalua-tion and responsible reform, but it is not what is best for our country.

Canton Winer, FCRH ’15, is an unde-clared major from West Palm Beach, Fla.

Though affi rmative action was banned in Michigan several years ago, the state’s Court of Appeals is in the process of evaluating whether the ban is legal and whether it should be overturned or upheld.MAP COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS, PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOHN F. MARTIN, CARLOS OSORIO, PAUL SANCYA/AP, COMPILED BY CHRISTINE BARCELLONA

By RICKY BORDELONCONTRIBUTING WRITER

“We the people…” These three words are the beginning of one of the most im-portant documents in American history. This document established a govern-ment founded in the principles of liberty and justice. As time went on, however, the question became “which people?” Slaves? Immigrants? Catholics? After the Civil War, the federal government and the states passed one of the most impor-tant and controversial amendments in the Constitution: the Fourteenth.

This amendment is the foundation of one of the most debated principles that exists in the American political world: affirmative action. The Stanford Encyclo-pedia of Philosophy defines affirmative ac-tion as “mean[ing] positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, edu-cation and business from which they have been historically excluded.”

One of the most recent situations in-volving affirmative action is in the state of Michigan. The citizens of Michigan voted in favor of Proposal 2, a ban of af-firmative action in college admissions and government hiring. This ban was upheld in federal district court but overturned by a three-judge panel in the fed-eral court of ap-peals.

After an appeal by the Attorney General of Mich-igan, however, all of the judges of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to rehear the case, meaning the three-judge panel decision is vacated and the full court will hear and decide the case.

Michigan has an interesting history involving affirmative action. Two of the most famous Supreme Court cases involv-ing affirmative action—Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger—originated in Michigan. Proposal 2 actually began as a reaction to the ruling in Grutter v. Bol-linger, which reinforced the University of Michigan Law School’s policy of affirma-tive action.

The citizens of Michigan passed this proposal with good reason; the residents were tired of having race considered as a significant factor in college admissions and government hiring.

Affirmative action began as a response to help blacks and other minorities gain entrance into institutes of higher learning

Affi rmative Action Is a Part of the Solution, Though More Could Be Changed Michigan Ban Aptly Abolishes Affi rmative Action, a Discriminatory Practice

“People are being judged on an aspect of themselves over which they do not have any

control.”

“Th e opportunity gap be-tween whites and minori-

ties remains wide, and is, in fact, expanding.”

Staff Poll: Should affi rmative action be banned?

Fourteen Ram staff ers said yes. Th ree staff -ers said no. Have an opinion? Write a Lett er to the Editor and have your voice heard.

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PAGE 13SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Vivienne Tam Hosts Live Fashion Yoga Collection Presentation

Singer Katy B Performs New Album At Webster Hall

in the industry for partnership. Tam chose to collaborate with Chinese Olympic Gold Medal-ist and athletic apparel owner

Li Ning to create “The Modern Woman’s Dream Yoga Collec-tion.” Familiar with athletic-apparel and its construction, Li

By HOLLY LEMANOWICZSTAFF WRITER

Kathleen Brian, or Katy B, a graduate of BRIT School for Performing Arts in London, sang at Webster Hall on Sept. 13.PHOTO BY CODIE LANDSMAN/THE RAM

Webster Hall off ered a sense of intimacy within the concert. “Since it was so small, the fans were as close as can be to the band and it was clear how excited they were,” Ashley Meade, GSB ’13, said. “She was so obviously grate-ful that people were thrilled to see her and that made the perfor-mance even bett er.”

Katy B is a graduate of the BRIT School for Performing Arts in London, which is the same high school that produced Brit-ish stars like Adele, Amy Wine-house and Leona Lewis. Katie B has been popular in the U.K. but, like many other foreign singers, struggles to achieve fame in the United States.

“I had never even heard of Katy B before the show, but I would defi nitely recommend her to any-one,” Meade said.

Katy’s performance at Webster Hall has certainly allowed her to get her foot in the door as she continues to assert herself as a unique and ever-evolving artist.

Sporting a white Rinse FM T-shirt, the London pirate station which provided fi rst exposure to Katy B, the singer danced along-side a full band as she once again broke away from the traditional DJ-oriented performance.

She rocked the crowd with songs like “Witches Brew,” “Easy

Please Me” and the heavily antici-pated “Katy On a Mission,” in ad-dition to her encore performance

of “Lights On,” which accurately includes the line “play me just one more song.” It did not look

like the crowd was going to give up chanting her name until she did just that.

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Vivi-enne Tam hosted a Live Fashion Yoga Collection Presentation as part of Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. Twenty female yogis, dressed in Tam’s new-est collection, created a “Live Sculpture Garden” and were led in various choreographed yoga postures by world renowned in-structors Rodney Yee and Col-leen Saidman Yee.

Known for her East-meets-West designs, Tam, a Chinese-American fashion designer, is dedicated to creating unique experiences for consumers and offering glimpses of her inspira-tions to consumers.

Tam takes aspects from her roots in Hong Kong and from her current home in New York City, as inspiration for her de-signs.

Tam’s first line of athletic wear was inspired by her love for yoga, busy everyday life and the feel-ing that there was a void in the market of fashionable, stylish and colorful active apparel.

Tam took her hectic lifestyle, and that of the everyday woman, into consideration with the cre-ation of this line; she wanted to fashion pieces that she could wear to yoga classes, work and anywhere else that she would travel in a typical day.

Considering that Tam is most noted for her ready-to-wear con-temporary pieces, she reached out to a friend with experience

Ning and Vivienne Tam were able to successfully collaborate on a beautiful and functional collection.

PHOTO BY HOLLY LEMANOWICZ/THE RAM

Twenty yogis perfomed in the “Live Sculpture Garden” on Sept. 13 at the Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week.

At the event, guests were en-couraged to move around the yogis at the Barclays Capital Grove at Lincoln Center, which provided a picturesque backdrop for such a serene and peaceful event.

Amid all the waif-like, highly made-up models at the rest of the Fashion Week show, this event featured real women dedi-cated wholeheartedly to the body, mind and spirit.

Emphasis was on the eco-friendly athletic apparel, rather than celebrities seated in the front row, although Dina Lohan, mother of Lindsey Lohan, and supermodel Petra Nemcova did make appearances.

Event sponsors took the whole person into account, as exemplified by the Origins, Tela Hair Organics by Philip Pelusi and Gaiam Inc. Compared to the rest of the Fashion Week festivi-ties, this event was considerably more casual and allowed attend-ees to embrace not only fashion but also the outdoors.

It is no surprise that Tam put on a fashion installation with such a unique concept, as she has recently been involved in in-novative partnerships that have only strengthened her name as a designer.

Tam has designed the inte-rior of a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero, partnered with Hong Kong Dis-neyland in designing Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse cos-tumes and collaborated with HP on a laptop design for the Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam edition.

By CODIE LANDSMANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Twenty-two-year old British singer-songwriter Kathleen Brien (“Lights On”), bett er known as “Katy B,” fi nally celebrated the U.S. release of her album On A Mission through a live perfor-mance at Webster Hall on Sept. 13th.

Th is high-energy performance on New York grounds has certain-ly solidifi ed Katy B’s presence as a talented British performer who is ready to expand her fan base even further.

Th e funky, bright-red-haired Katy B stands out from the tradi-tional idea of “dubstep” by mixing wobbly bass lines with her soft er mix of funky dance tunes along with smooth, soulful vocals.

Th is style separates her from well-known dubstep producers that she has worked with, such as Skream (Skream!) and Benga (Resident Advisor). Her upbeat, bubbly house music encouraged endless dancing and singing. Screams of “I love you Katy!” fi lled the air in between songs and even occasionally seemed to star-tle the young woman, who per-haps did not expect to fi nd such an appreciative and diverse group of people.

A smaller venue than many,

CULTUREPAGE 14 • THE RA M SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Dining Out: Café Lalo

Café Lalo, which is located at 201 W 83rd St. #1, appeared in You’ve Got Mail. The café serves dishes including French “kiss” quiche and zucchini cheese frittata.

CLARA ENNIST

With ClaraCooking

Savory-Sweet Sirloin

Editor’s Pick: Th e Importance of StorytellingBy CONNIE KIM

NEWS EDITOR

PHOTO BY KATIE CATALDO/THE RAM

By KATIE CATALDOCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Overall

Location

Food Quality

Atmosphere

Hospitality

Price

(Out of 4 ’s)

$ $

My favorite taste combination is sweet and savory. Typically, I satisfy this preference by eating a goat cheese and pear salad; how-ever, one of the bett er marks of a cook is someone who knows how to make meals that other people will enjoy.

Beef is not the fi rst meat I gravi-tate toward when deciding what to eat, if I decide to have meat as a protein in my meal. Yet, with the knowledge that I sometimes enjoy cooking and baking for people other than myself, I decided to try a sirloin recipe that is extremely straightforward.

Servings: 6-8-2 pounds sirloin-1/2 c water-1/2 c ketchup-1/4 c white vinegar-1 onion, sliced-1/2 clove minced garlic-1/4 c and 2 Tbs brown sugar-1 1/2 tsp saltDirections: In a large skillet,

cook the sirloin steaks. Stir in the water, ketchup, vinegar, onions, garlic, brown sugar and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Continue simmering for about a half hour.

I modifi ed this recipe from a traditional brisket recipe served on Passover. Brisket is not my fa-vorite cut of beef and, rather than using a cut that would take much longer to prepare, I decided to go with the sirloin.

Because sirloin is already con-siderably tenderer than brisket, it requires much less cooking time, and it is best done either in a sauté pan or broiled. I start with all cuts of meat by trimming off a good deal (but not all) of the excess fat.

I know that a lot of people com-plain that fat is what adds fl avor to meat; obviously, these people have never heard of seasoning. While sirloin is a bett er cut of meat, you can still achieve the same eff ect and spend less money if you do decide to use brisket.

Just follow the recipe with a few modifi cations: cook the brisket in a Dutch oven or a large skillet until it is browned on all sides, add the remaining ingredients and, aft er bringing it to a boil, let it simmer for two and a half hours, occasion-ally turning the brisket. Wait for the brisket to cool then slice the meat against the grain and refrig-erate overnight.

Th e change of braising the bris-ket rather than just sautéing it has to do with the fact that brisket is among the toughest cuts of beef you can get. Although it may not start out as tender as a sirloin would, you can achieve a similar eff ect if you have the time to dedi-cate to slowly cooking it.

While I may not love beef, there are certain times when I want to make a dish that satisfi es people other than myself; meat and po-tatoes is a never-fail combination, unless you’re cooking for vegetar-ians.

Th is recipe makes the meat por-tion of that combination much easier to prepare, while it also sates my own taste for the sweet and savory.

Why do we read stories? Why are they so important that people oft en consider reading stories as a part of the growing process? I have wondered about this since my childhood. Stories are just one way to transmit ideas from one person to another; nevertheless, people still get att racted to stories. Th ey try to discover their way of life through stories because tales provide the meaning and context to what would otherwise be a col-lection of easily “forgett able facts.” In other words, stories help people make sense of the world.

Th e privilege of telling stories is not limited to authors who publish books; we not only read and lis-ten to stories but also narrate our personal stories to one another. It makes storytelling unique, as we are the only creatures that use storytelling as a tool to understand ideas and concepts. In fact, there is a growing body of research that points to the power of narrative not merely as a way to engage people, but as the only way to change deep-ly entrenched views.

I once read a children’s book called Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie. In the novel, one of the antagonists says: “What are all these stories? Life is not a storybook or joke shop. All this fun will come to no good. What’s the

use of stories that aren’t even true?” I was surprised for a moment; for what purpose do we read stories that are not true?

I found out through this novel that, if stories did not exist, the world would be a horrible place to live. Rushdie places the main char-acter, Haroun, in the “Sad City,” which lacks storytelling, to demon-strate how people become greedy and immoral when stories are not available or existent. “Sad City” is the epitomic location of unhappi-ness and life’s follies, where people are so depressed that they cannot even remember the name of the city; people are so materialistic that “necessity” strips citizens of their truthfulness.

“I am having my time wasted by a Disconnector Th ief who will not trust in what he can’t see. How much have you seen, eh, Th iefl et? Africa, have you seen it? No? Th en is it truly there? And submarines? Huh? Also hailstones, baseballs, pa-godas? … And the past, did it hap-pen? And the future, will it come?,” Rushdie wrote in the book.

Children are supposed to use imagination to believe in things they do not see with their eyes; however, the city that only cares about the present ruins the inno-cence of the children’s minds. A so-ciety can go awry when storytelling is not obtainable for the common man. Th e stories are necessary in order to fulfi ll our lives in a positive

way, but there is no point of creat-ing stories if no one wants to read or listen to them. Rushdie also claims that, even when the stories exist to fulfi ll human lives, the quality of the story is important. As Haroun puts it, “Anybody can tell stories… liars, and cheats, and crooks, for ex-ample. But for the stories with the extra ‘umph’… even the best story-tellers need a method of expressing that ‘umph.’”

Stories can signifi cantly aff ect the readers positively and nega-tively, thereby allowing readers to

change their behaviors and even their traditional values. Readers usually experience a whole new world through stories, since stories can deal with a plot that is totally impossible or unlikely to happen in the real world.

Although people understand that the lives they experience in stories usually are not real, they can easily devote themselves to the story; people give full play to their imagination and start to believe that their lives are closely related to those in the stories.

Paris, 1905. Th e scene: an allur-ing wood-paneled café lined with twinkling lights and glass cases of freshly baked tarts, rugelach and numerous cheesecakes, like a vi-sion from a Van Gogh painting. Actually, it is Café Lalo, a scenic walk away from Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side it is and home to the best brunch I have had in New York City.

One crisp, clear, sweater-and-a-latt é Sunday, I came upon Café Lalo and was drawn inside by its window front and bright blue fl ag, with a Lautrec-style dancing

woman gracing the front. While the café was a litt le crowded, I was seated almost right away at a spot next to the open windows. In classic New York style, I was practically bumping elbows with my neighbor, but this element just seemed to add to Lalo’s charm.

Th e restaurant is bright and cheery, with walls covered in col-orful ’20s-style posters and fi lled with fl owers and painted tiles. Th e menu is quite extensive, with a full selection of espresso-laden coff ee drinks and as many brunch choic-es as you could ever imagine.

Rather than your typical diner food, Café Lalo instead lives up to its unique European-style atmo-

sphere and off ers everything from quiches to cheese plates to fresh organic salads and panini.

I decided I would begin with a skim cappuccino, which arrived hot and steaming with a thick layer of creamy foam on top, just how a great cappuccino should. I was pleasantly surprised to fi nd a tiny Toblerone candy on my saucer, which was a sweet treat with the slightly bitt er espresso.

For my brunch, I chose a plate of steamed eggs with goat cheese, oreg-ano, tomatoes and basil, something I’ve never seen on a menu before.

Th e eggs came with a side of roasted fi ngerling potatoes and a small “Mediterranean” salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, pine nuts and cilantro. Th e steamed eggs, I found out, are prepared without butt er or oil, a nice change from the greasy eggs usually found in breakfast restaurants. I could not taste a negative diff erence. In fact, these eggs were absolutely deli-cious, a perfect balance of two complex spices balanced out with the rich goat cheese, which came in a heaping scoop underneath the eggs.

Th e potatoes were freshly sliced and tasted fabulous with a litt le bit of sea salt on top, as was the side salad. Th e cilantro was an interest-ing choice and a bit overpower-ing, but when combined with the pine nuts, I greatly enjoyed it as

a balancing act to the supremely savory eggs. I had to stop myself from scraping the plate clean by the time I was done.

In addition to the delicious meals, there is a huge glass show-case packed with freshly-baked desserts, which one would be hard-pressed to ignore, particu-larly when combined with the

constant sweet scents waft ing from behind the counter and the stacks of cheesecakes staring you in the face from across the room.

Th e dessert menu is almost longer

than the food menu, from a full list of aft er-dinner drinks to fon-dues to unbelievable chocolate-laden creations. While I was far too stuff ed to sample any of the desserts in the café, I took home a thick slice of decadent cappuccino cheesecake, which I savored over several days.

I spent several hours in Café Lalo studying and people-watch-ing from the window, slowly sip-ping my cappuccino and reveling in the fl awless atmosphere, feel-ing as though I had completely escaped the city, but at the same time, knowing that kind of mo-ment was the essence of the New York experience.

I highly recommend Café Lalo for a lazy weekend brunch, a ro-mantic aft er-dinner dessert or a tranquil coff ee to take a step back for a few hours and just watch the world go by.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 15CULTURE

SUTRA O’Keefe Commons8 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Th e Mexican band will perform using lively visuals, along with opening act Save the Youth Center.

Charlie Parker Jazz FestivalMarcus Garvey Park6 p.m.

Th e free festival celebrates great music with talented musi-cians including Kenny Werner, James Carter and Tia Fuller.

Dumbo Dance FestivalWhite Wave (25 Jay St. 100, Brooklyn, NY)11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Th e festival is a free, weekend-long aff air showcasing dance companies from the United States, Canada and Ja-pan.

Feast of San GennaroLitt le Italy Manhatt tan

Th e patron saint of Naples will be celebrated with pa-rades, dancing, Mass and cannolis.

“What Are You? Mixed-Heritage Brooklyn”Brooklyn Historical Society128 Pierrepont St.7 p.m.

Diff erent experts discuss the diverse culture of Brooklyn.

Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and AmuletsBrooklyn Museum200 Eastern Parkway

Th is exhibit features objects that have never been dis-played before and represent the human body.

Bryant Park Ping-PongBryant Park (41 W. 40th St.)11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Enjoy outdoor pong with two tables and complimentary paddles and balls.

TO READ THESE REVIEWS IN THEIR ENTIRETY, VISIT THERA MONLINE.COM AND CLICK ON “CULTURE” ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HOMEPAGE.

Ram ReviewsMOVIE

what’sGoing On?

Know “what’s going on” on campus or in NYC?

Send tips, event listings, or comments to theram@fordham.edu.

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— COMPILED BY SCHARON HARDING

A MEMBER OF GSB ’12

MAJORING IN FINANCE AND MINORING IN

MATHEMATICS AND ECONOMICS

FROM HOWELL, N.J.

WHO’S THAT KID?Bryan Matis

Bryan Matis, who is from Howell, N.J., is a senior in Gabelli School of Business. COURTESY OF BRYAN MATIS

MONEYBALL

By JAKE KRING-SCHREIFELSSTAFF WRITER

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

What campus organizations are you involved in?

I’m proud to be the executive vice president of United Student Government, an awesome group that works to make Fordham a bett er place for everyone. Th is is my third year [being] involved in USG. I was also the president of Students for Fair Trade last year, and I’ve done New Student Orien-tation since my sophomore year.

Please describe yourself in a couple of sentences.

I like to learn, I like to laugh and I like to live. If you’re a genuine per-son and you’re fun to be around, I want to be your friend, and I’m al-ways in the market for high-quality baked goods.

Please describe something about yourself that not many people know.

I’ve been playing guitar since fi ft h grade and write music when-ever I can. I’ve got about eight or nine songs that I’m really proud of. One day I’d like to record all of it and then listen to it when I’m 70 for fun.

What is your favorite aspect about Fordham? Why?

It’s a place where you can re-ally fi nd yourself. Find a group of friends who love you for who you are, and then don’t hold back. It’s the best feeling in the world.

What is your favorite class at Fordham and favorite professor? Why?

Th e Fair Trade & Microfi nance class with Dr. Kate Combellick was

defi nitely my favorite class, because we got to run a small business that seeks to alleviate poverty in Kenya in a small but meaningful way. I’m so lucky to have had the chance to do something that maybe helped to improve the lives of those most in need.

What is your favorite memory while att ending Fordham?

Living in Queen’s Court fresh-man year. Nothing compares to staying up late at night in Bishop’s Lounge doing homework with all of your friends while it’s snowing

outside.

What is your favorite thing to do in NYC? How oft en do you go into the city?

It’s fun to go into the city with-out a plan, and just see what you wind up doing. You can do almost anything you want in NYC. I love it.

What are your plans (career or otherwise) aft er college?

I want a job where I can go to sleep every night and know that I did something meaningful.

What do you want to do or ac-complish before you leave Ford-ham?

On graduation day, I’d like to leave knowing that I took full ad-vantage of my four years here.

Is there anything else you want people to know about you?

I’m always down for a midnight acoustic guitar jam session on Keating steps. Especially if you like Goo Goo Dolls songs.

Moneyball, the adaption of best Michael Lewis’ best-selling 2003 book, is not your typical sports fi lm. Th en again, what Billy Beane did with the Oakland Athletics wasn’t typical either. Th e movie, directed by Bennett Miller (Capote), centers as a biopic but is laced together by a dramatic narrative. Spanning the course of one year, Miller takes us on the emotional roller coaster of a general manager of a baseball team, insightfully hitt ing poignant mo-ments of despair and unexpected jolts of hope. In this sense, it is not a baseball movie; it is a movie about baseball.

Th ere is a subtle diff erence, but it is one that ultimately is able to cap-ture the hearts of non-sports fans and make them care about a man and team that defi ed the odds.

Th e fi lm opens like a documen-tary, with some blurry TV footage from the elimination game of the 2001 American League Division Series. Oakland is down to their fi nal out in the Bronx, on the verge of losing to the Yankees and ending their 102-win season. Announcer Th om Brennaman makes the call through Billy Beane’s portable ra-dio. Billy, played by a grizzled Brad Pitt (Babel), sits 3,000 miles away in an empty Coliseum, intermitt ently tuning in and out.

Th e crowd roars; he impulsively slams the radio down onto the as-phalt, and the faint tune of “New York, New York” drift s into the night. Why is this playoff loss more piercing than any other? Because Oakland, a small-market city, will not be able to aff ord its best play-ers, who are eligible for free agency in the now present off season. Mr. Miller att entively posts the number 39,722,689 onto the screen, which represents the Athletics’ payroll in dollars for that season, and is the ul-timate reason Billy Beane has to get

creative.Billy knows he can’t replace the

best fi rst baseman in the league, but for some reason, his scouts believe they can. With a fractionalized bud-get, Beane decides to shake things up and try an outlier approach. He acquires wunderkind Peter Brand ( Jonah Hill, Superbad), an eco-nomics major and Yale graduate, who electronically analyzes players. Billy’s latest hire injects some fervor into the A’s scouting crew, a kid in his fi rst job about to discredit years of baseball tradition with a bunch of numbers.

Mr. Miller resourcefully fl ashes the images of spreadsheets that Brand (based on Paul DePodesta) and Beane linger over every day, pages upon pages of player profi les and stats mathematically choreo-graphed. Th e only intriguing thing for beane and Brand is OPS, oth-erwise known as on-base plus slug-ging percentage, the sabermetric key to scoring runs, which Brand claims is how to win games. With this new avenue to expose, they

quickly get to work, fi nding players who have been overlooked by every other team but whom the A’s now cherished for att ributes that were not valued at that time.

One of the script writers is Aaron Sorkin, who penned the other short history and industry revolution fi lm, Th e Social Network. Moneyball does not quite fi t into place as it did with his Oscar-winning adap-tion last year, but it certainly works within its parameters. He re-creates dialogue in a realistic manner, pro-viding a snapshot and behind-the-scenes look into front-offi ce nego-tiation. Rather than including quick zings for a Mark Zuckerberg, Sorkin opts for dry, awkward silences and unexpectedly humorous, to-the-point discourse.

Pitt gives a profound perfor-mance in emitt ing Beane’s abrasive behavior and tender care-giving. Pitt ’s repeated displays of tired frus-tration display the daily grind of a general manager, as he rubs his eyes and pushes his hair out of his increasingly wrinkled forehead. His

devotion to fi nding obscure players becomes all the more enticing when Miller seamlessly fl ashes back to Beane’s baseball-playing days. Once a prized, highly touted, Billy was the exact opposite of what he searches for in the computer. Passing up a full-scholarship to play ball at Stan-ford, Billy opted for the big leagues and signed a contract with the New York Mets. His performance de-clined rapidly, and strategic inserts of Billy’s big-league struggles add a motivational dynamic to his pres-ent, changing culture.

Instead of a cliché, third act, grand fi nale, it ends with an unconven-tional crescendo, which was goose-bump worthy but lacked a fi ery end. Th en again, Moneyball is not about hitt ing a homerun, it’s about gett ing on base, drawing walks and chang-ing the way we appreciate talent. “If you lose the last game it doesn’t matt er,” Beane said, and in this case, changing the game can make more of an impact than winning it.

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ADVERTISING SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 17

ADVERTISINGPAGE 18 • THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

SPORTS APRIL 13, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 21

PAGE 19SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Women’s Soccer Surrenders Most Goals in Team’s History By ERIK PEDERSEN

SPORTS EDITOR

Aft er a satisfying 4-2 victory over Utah Valley Friday night, the Fordham women’s soccer team was dominated in historic fashion Sunday, losing 13-1 to nationally-ranked Texas A&M. Th e 13 goals were the most Fordham has sur-rendered in team history.

“We got very overconfi dent [af-ter Friday’s game],” Head Coach Ness Selmani said. “It was just a total disaster.”

Despite the meltdown on Sun-day, the weekend in Texas did get off to a good start for Fordham, as they played what Selmani de-scribed as one of their best all-around games against the Utah Valley Wolverines.

Senior forward Mariella Ro-mano opened the scoring four minutes into the game, taking a cross from junior forward Annie Worden and scoring into the up-per right corner of the goal. Af-ter Utah Valley tied the game 10 minutes before halft ime, Romano struck again three minutes into the second half, scoring her sec-ond goal of the game and third of the season.

“[Romano’s] been playing bett er and bett er every game,” Selmani said. “She has bigger re-sponsibilities now as a captain, she takes charge of the team and

Mariella Romano scored two goals to help defeat Utah Valley, but the celebrations would not persist against Texas A&M.

Men’s Soccer Splits Pair of Road Games to Finish Five-Game Trip with 2-3 RecordBy DAN BRADLEYCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Fordham men’s soccer team finished out its five-game road trip with games against neighbors Columbia and Adel-phi. The Rams defeated Colum-bia 1-0 in overtime but lost 2-1 to Adelphi.

Fordham first made the short journey over to the Baker Athlet-ics Complex to take on Colum-bia.

Last year, Fordham defeated the Lions 2-1, and the Rams were hoping to beat their neighbors once again.

A light, cold rain fell on pro-ceedings to complicate matters, but the Rams were glad to have their starting senior goalkeeper Ryan Meara back after he missed the game against Drake due to an injury.

The game proved to be a de-fensive struggle, with each team fighting for any scoring oppor-tunities they could get. Fordham senior midfielder Tim Richard-son forced Lions’ goalkeeper Al-exander Aurrichio to make a save in the 14th minute, just seconds after Meara made his first stop.

Columbia had their best scor-ing chance of the night when Hen-ning Sauerbier’s shot was saved by Meara after Mike Mazzullo hit the post in the 23rd minute.

For the rest of regulation, scor-ing chances were few and far be-tween, with sophomore forward

Julian Nagel and sophomore mid-fielder/defender Casper Gimand having the only shots on goal un-til the Rams’ first overtime of the season.

Overtime meant that the Rams would only have 20 minutes to score, or the game would end in a tie. Fordham came out like a rocket and had three corner-kicks before senior midfielder John McHugh scored to give the Rams the win with only eight seconds left in the first half of overtime. The win was huge for the Rams, especially as it was against a rival.

“It is always great to win on the road, especially against Colum-bia,” Head Coach Jim McElderry said. “It is a rivalry game for us, and winning the game allowed our seniors to go 3-0-1 over their four years.”

Fordham had two days off be-fore they traveled to Adelphi to play the Panthers, who were win-less on the season going into the game.

Fordham was off to a poor start when Adelphi’s Tall Issa scored his first goal, sliding one past Meara. Fordham pressed for an equalizer, particularly Richardson, who in-duced two saves out of Panthers goalie Christopher Herrera.

Fordham then found them-selves down two when Brandon Stoneham scored for Adelphi in spectacular fashion on a bullet from 30 yards out. At that point, shots were even, and it was clear John McHugh scored the game-winning goal late in overtime against Columbia. The goal was his fi rst of the season.

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

her strong vision has been shown every game. She plays so hard that I try to rest her as much as I can because we’re going to need her [for the Atlantic 10 season].”

Th e Wolverines rallied once again in the 56th minute to tie the game at two, but Fordham’s fresh-men took charge of the game aft er-wards. First, freshman forward Kristina Maksuti took a corner kick from fellow freshman forward Maria Lorena Canicatt i and scored from the left side of the penalty box to give the Lady Rams the lead in

the 68th minute.Five minutes later, freshman

forward Megan Poiesz gave the team some insurance, driving a shot past UVU sophomore goal-keeper Lauren Sack for Poiesz’s second goal of the season. Poi-esz’s goal completed the scoring, and Fordham would end up out-shooting the Wolverines 26-13, with Maksuti leading the way with six shots. Junior goalie Ra-chel Suther made six saves to pick up her third win of the season.

Any positive momentum from Friday, however, was quickly ex-

tinguished against Texas A&M on Sunday. Th e Aggies came into the game ranked No. 21 in the coun-try aft er defeating No. 1 North Carolina the week before, and they totally dismantled the Lady Rams from start to fi nish.

Th e game actually remained scoreless for the fi rst 15 minutes, but Texas A&M then scored three goals in a span of just over three minutes, and they took a 5-0 lead into halft ime.

Selmani replaced Suther with freshman goalie Ally White aft er the break, but the game would

only get more out of hand, as the Aggies scored eight more goals on 20 second-half shots. Freshman forwards Annie Kunz and Kel-ley Monogue each recorded hat tricks for the Aggies, with eight diff erent players scoring overall.

“It wakes up the team,” Selmani said. “Sometimes one team has one of their best games while the other has their worst and that’s what happened [on Sunday].”

Maksuti provided the sole posi-tive moment from Sunday’s game, scoring her team-leading sixth goal of the season (despite miss-ing two games due to a red card suspension) to prevent the shut-out in the 79th minute.

“I said when we recruited her that she’s going to be a program-changer, she’s that kind of player,” Selmani said. “She’s soccer-smart, she’s unselfi sh and she really has the nose for goal. We expect her to be a key factor [going forward].”

For the game, Fordham was out-shot 38-8 as they fell to 4-4-1 on the season. Th ey will return home to face Columbia next Sun-day before opening up the A-10 season the following Friday.

“In the end, it’s only one loss,” Selmani said. “It’s huge, and you can never forget the lessons learned, but in the end we fi n-ished the trip with one win and one loss, and that’s what goes in the column.”

Team Loses 13-1 to Nationally-Ranked Texas A&M After Defeating Utah Valley, Finishes 1-1 on Road Trip

that the Rams could make a run against their opponents in the second half.

“We did not start well against Adelphi and therefore put our-selves in a big hole,” McElderry said. “The team played very well in the second half.”

A flurry of activity in front of Meara was not the ideal start to the second half, but Fordham cut the deficit in half when freshman forward Jack-Tim Murphy scored

his first-ever college goal. The Rams were back in business, and they pushed on in hope of tying the game.

“We scored an early goal to get back into it,” McElderry said, “If we tied the game, I know we would have gone on to win it.”

Fordham appeared destined to even the score, when the Panthers committed a foul in the box that gave the Rams a penalty shot, but it was not meant to be, as Herrera

denied senior midfielder John Ni-yansaba’s kick.

Fordham was not able to mount a sustained push after that, and fell to an even 3-3 record on the year, despite outshooting the Panthers 14-12 overall.

The Rams finished 2-3 on the road trip, and return home to play Marist on Wednesday in one of their three remaining out-of-con-ference games before the Atlan-tic-10 season starts.

SPORTSPAGE 20 • THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

By IAN PRUITTCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Th e Fordham water polo team was back in action last weekend at the CWPA North vs. South Tournament hosted by the United States Naval Academy. Following a tough weekend of play at the Princeton Invitational, the Rams avenged an early-season loss by beating Mercyhust 9-7, but they were unable to come up with wins against Navy’s B team or national-ly-ranked East Coast powerhouses Bucknell and Princeton.

Fordham began tournament play Saturday, Sept. 17 with an overtime loss to Navy’s B squad. Senior utility Robert Fleming had a spectacular game with a ca-reer-high six goals and one assist. Sophomore’s Nick Allen and Ben Clinkenbeard both scored twice and added one assist apiece. Other Fordham scorers includ-ed senior J.D. Shrewsbury, junior Jake Bakas and sophomore Danny Kearney. Freshman Eric Minow-itz, who was last week’s CWPA Northern Division Rookie of the Week, also contributed a goal. Senior goalie Christian Flessner played the entire game and tied the 2011 Fordham saves record with nine. Despite the punish-ment dealt out by Fleming, the Rams lost 15-14.

“I was just trying to be as aggres-sive as possible,” Fleming said. “I wanted to set the tone by scoring early. Th e goal just felt big.”

Th e Rams defeated Mercyhurst 9-7 in Game 2.

“Having lost to the Lakers ear-lier this season, there was no way

we were going to lose that game,” Shrewsbury said.

Fleming had another big game with three goals scored. Senior Josh Itano scored two goals. Dan-ny Barron added one more goal, as well as two steals and two as-sists. Senior Andrew McKernin had a big game with a goal and three steals, and sophomore Wil-lie Leach also scored. Freshman goalkeeper Noah LeBeau had 11 saves and one steal.

On Sunday, Fordham faced two nationally-ranked teams. During Sunday’s fi rst game, the Rams found themselves once again falling to 14th ranked Princeton. Fordham, now 0-2 against the Ti-gers, fell behind early, and could do litt le to close the gap. Flem-ing led the Rams with two goals, while Minowitz had a goal and four steals. McKernin, Clinken-beard and Allen also each scored a goal. LeBeau led the defensive eff ort with nine saves and four steals.

Later on Sunday, the Rams lost their third game of the weekend to 16th ranked Bucknell. Allen led the way for the Rams, notching three goals, while Fleming added two goals and an assist. Danny Barron had one goal, two steals and two blocks, while Shrewsbury also scored once. LeBeau set the new 2011 save record with an im-pressive 13.

Th e Rams, now 3-9 for the 2011 season, will host MIT and Harvard this Saturday, Sept. 24, at Fordham’s pool. Th e MIT game will begin promptly at 1 p.m. with the Harvard game to follow at 6 p.m.

New Look Men’s Tennis Sweeps First Th ree MatchesBy CHRISTIAN BEAULIEU

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Th e 2011-12 Fordham men’s tennis season is only a weekend old, but it already looks signifi -cantly bett er than last season’s 4-14 record. Th e Rams put the 27th-ranked recruiting class in the nation on display as they swept their three matches against Sienna, St. Peter’s and St. Francis this weekend.

An infl ux of young talent sparks new levels of excitement for the 2011-12 Rams. Th e weekend fea-tured sophomore transfers Kuba Kuwalski and Misha Koran, for-merly of San Diego State and St. John’s, respectively. Th e season opener was also the debut of Fordham’s highly-touted freshman recruiting class, which includes Srikar Alla, Peder Gram, Jan Krouham, J.J. Tauil and Mi-chael Puntillo. “We are a very perspective team, Kuwalski said. “It’s looking good for the future.”

Head Coach Cory Hubbard’s fi rst recruiting class earned him a lot of buzz over the off season, but this weekend earned him some key wins.

“Our goal was to lead the nation in victories aft er the fi rst weekend and, thanks to the three wins, we are,” Hubbard said.

Siena, St. Peter’s and St. Fran-cis contributed four of Fordham’s

14 losses last year. Th e Rams did more than win over the course of this weekend; they dominated, taking each of the three matches by a score of 7-0.

Th e Rams opened up the sea-son this past Saturday against the Siena Saints. Fordham started off doubles play with an 8-0 win, as Kowalski and Alla made quick work of their opponents. Koran and Gram won second doubles by a score of 8-3. Th e combo of Tauil and Krouham won 8-4 to fi nish the doubles sweep.

Singles matches yielded simi-lar results, as Fordham went on to claim all six singles matches, including three dominating 6-1, 6-0 wins by Kowalski, Koran and Tauil. Alla, Tauil, Gram and Krouham earned their fi rst career singles wins.

On Sunday, the Rams hosted St. Peter’s College, winning 7-0 against the Peacocks. Doubles play opened again with the tan-dem of Kuwalski and Alla taking care of their counterparts with a strong 8-2 win. Koran and Gram duplicated the result with a strong 8-2 victory. Th e dynamic duo of Tuail and Krouham stayed hot, winning 8-4.

In singles, Kuwalski rode his power serve to seven aces and a 6-0, 6-0 shutout. Koran’s fi ery pas-sion yielded not only chest bumps and warrior-like yells but also a convincing 6-3, 6-3 victory. Alla

used his quick racket and seem-ingly endless range to earn a 6-2, 6-1 win. Th e trio of Gram, Tuail and Krouham fi nished the clean sweep by each adding straight set victories.

Fordham came out to an early lead by sweeping doubles matches against St. Francis. Th e only adversity the Rams had to

overcome came in doubles play when Puntillo returned a Terrier player’s serve. Th e return devi-ated from its intended course to strike his teammate Tuail hard in the back. Tuail was okay, and he recovered to win his singles match 6-2, 6-4.

Alex DeRienzo, last year’s best singles player, won his fi rst match

of the young season. Koran an-swered Kuwalski’s earlier shutout with one of his own by a count of 6-0, 6-0.

Th e Rams’ next match will be Friday, Sept. 23 at the USTA NTC Collegiate Invitational Tournament at the USTA Na-tional Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens.

Fordham’s No. 1 doubles team of Kuba Kowalski and Srikar Alla have lost only six games of the Rams fi rst three matches.PHOTO BY JULIAN WONG/THE RAM

By MICHELLE FANELLI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Th e Fordham women’s tennis team had a solid start to its fall sea-son, as the Lady Rams played in the Stony Brook Invitational this past weekend. On Friday, Sept. 16, fi ve players advanced to the singles quarterfi nals.

In the “A” singles, junior Amy Simidian ended with a win 7-5, 6-2 against Navy sophomore Darien Sears, while in “B” singles, sopho-more Angelika Dabu beat Fairleigh Dickinson senior Irina Demen-tyeva 7-6, 6-0. In “C” singles, fresh-man Bella Genkina defeated Stony Brook junior Chloe Pike. Genkina lost her fi rst set 6-2; however, she won the second set 6-3 and fi nally became victorious, winning the tie-breaker 10-4. Finally, rounding off the advancing girls, in “D” singles freshman Julie Leong won by de-fault, automatically advancing to the quarterfi nals, while senior Sarah Tremaine won her match 7-6, 6-3.

Simidian and freshman Sarah Ali also advanced to the quarterfi nals in doubles play, as they defeated both Rhode Island and Navy. Soph-omore Hanna Fritzinger, playing in the “A” singles, and senior Bethany Boyle, playing in the “C” singles, played high-quality matches in de-feat, though they did not advance to the quarterfi nals.

On Saturday, the team continued their play as they advanced three into Sunday’s fi nals. In “A” doubles, Simidian and Ali won their semi-fi nal match 8-6 against Fairleigh Dickinson, while in the “D” singles Leong impressed with another win, this time against URI, 6-3, 4-6, 11-9.

Water Polo Finishes 1-3 at Weekend Tournament

Also in “D” singles, Navy freshman Gabby Winter defeated Tremaine 6-2, 6-2, ending her winning streak and preventing what could have been a possible Fordham-Fordham fi nal between Leong and Tremaine.

Rounding off the invitational with Sunday’s fi nals, Simidian and Ali played for the “A” doubles title, but lost to Army 8-6, fi nishing sec-ond in the overall “A” doubles por-tion of the invitational. Leong won the “D” singles, taking the fi rst set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-3) and then fi nishing with a win, 6-2, in the sec-ond set.

“Th e team was really support-

ive and helped me get through my matches,” Leong said. “Individual-ly, as my fi rst college match it turned out well, bett er then I expected. My win at the invitational was defi nite-ly a confi dence booster and made me even more ready for this season. Th e invitational was a good way to start off the year, as well as see what our team is going to be capable of in the upcoming months.”

With their spirits high, the Lady Rams are now preparing for their next match, as they will compete at West Point, N.Y. in the Eastern Championship next weekend, Sept. 23-25.

Angelika Dabu reached the semifi nals in “B” singles at the Stony Brook Invitational.PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Women’s Tennis Opens at Stony Brook Invitational, Winning Two Singles Finals

SPORTS SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 21

By MATT ROSENFELDCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mariano Rivera recorded his

602nd save this past Monday af-ternoon. With that save, Rivera passed Trevor Hoff man for the Major League record in saves. Rivera is now the MLB save king, and he probably will be for a long time. Rivera is without a doubt the greatest relief pitcher in the history of the sport. Before we know it, he will be gett ing en-shrined in Cooperstown as one of the best players ever. Th at brings up an interesting query, however: how do we treat closers with re-gard to the Hall of Fame?

Obviously, I am not suggest-ing that Rivera or Hoff man not be inducted into the Hall of Fame, since those two are the best ever in the closing department, but how do we determine what is a Hall of Fame closer? Th ere are benchmarks across baseball: 500 home runs, 300 wins, 3000 hits. Th ese stats give us security that the player who completes this feat is fi t for Cooperstown. What about for a closer?

A closer’s job is, when broken down and compared to every-body else’s in baseball, prett y sim-ple. A save is commonly known as fi nishing the game for your vic-torious team with a lead of three runs or fewer, but there are other circumstances in which one could acquire a save. You can also pitch the last three innings for your team in a win, or enter the game with the tying run either on base, at bat or on deck. Technically, one could come in with a fi ve-run lead and the bases loaded and give up a grand slam, but if he keeps that one-run lead and fi nishes the game, he will still earn a save.

What I am gett ing at is that saves are not all that diffi cult to earn. On paper, it is essentially one inning in which you do not give up a run, although some-times you could surrender up to

two runs and still get credit for the save. Th is is the main statis-tic by which we judge whether a closer should be inducted into the most prestigious club in baseball. Th e fact of the matt er is, it is not a good stat. It is not suffi cient to tell us who is good and who is bad.

Th at is why I think the closer is an overrated position on which we, as a baseball society, put far too much emphasis. Why is get-ting three outs in the ninth inning that much more impressive than acquiring a hold (a save made by a middle reliever that does not end the game, i.e. in the seventh in-ning rather than the ninth)?

Th ere is a fl ip side, though.Th ere is a strong argument that

it takes a diff erent type of person, of pitcher, to fi nish a game. To get those last three outs is far tougher than any other outs and therefore should be assessed diff erently. It seems silly, but ask any team that does not have a secure closer, and they will tell you the same. Th ere is something diff erent about those last three outs.

Th e Yankees have been blessed to have a man like Mariano Ri-vera grace their ninth innings for the past decade and a half. He is one of the best pitchers ever to play the game. He is a sure Hall of Famer. If the ninth inning was that easy, and good closers were a dime a dozen, would every Yankee fan be worried sick for the time when Rivera is no more? Th ere has to be some substance behind that worry.

Closing is like insurance. When you have it, there is a sense of security. You know that you are covered. Without it, there is al-ways a sense of worry. Sure, you could get by without it, and a lot of people do. Th at does not mean they do not wish they had that se-curity blanket. A lot of teams can get by without a good closer, but that does not mean every team does not wish they had a Mariano Rivera.

Closers: Hall of Fame Worthy? Football

Columbia 14-21 Fordham

1 2 3 4 FCOL 0 7 0 7 14FOR 0 7 7 7 21

First QuarterNone Second QuarterCOL Kurt Williams 12 yd pass from Sean Brackett(Eddy kick), 14:14FOR Nick Womack 100 yd in-terception return(Murray kick), 3:27Third QuarterFOR Sam Ajala 60 yd pass from Peter Maetzold(Murray kick), 5:45Fourth QuarterFOR Carlton Koonce 16 yd pass from Peter Maetzold(Murraykick), 5:19COL Mike Stephens 10 yd pass from Sean Brackett(Eddy kick), 1:40

COL FORFirst Downs 17 17Total Yards 312 297Rushing 73 77Passing 239 220Punt Returns 0-0 1-(-5)Kickoff Ret. 4-81 2-35Comp-Att-Int 18-38-2 23-31-0Punts 8-37.2 5-37.6Time of Poss. 31:09 28:51

Individual StatisticsPASSING- Fordham, Maetzold 22-30-2Columbia, Brackett 18-38-2RUSHING- Fordham, Whiting 18-100-0 Columbia, Garrett 15-42-0RECIEVING- Fordham, Ajala 4-76-1 Columbia, Stephens 8-105-1

Volleyball

Fordham 3-1 UMES

Fordham K PCT DIG BS BA BEBuongiorno 7 .192 3 0 3 0 Konkel 4 .667 6 0 0 0Daulton 11 .222 14 0 1 0Hipp 10 .143 7 0 3 0Ritchie 7 .100 1 0 1 0 Ewing 8 .412 1 0 3 0Arend 0 .000 4 0 0 0Moore 2 .125 1 0 0 0Capicotto 9 .750 3 0 2 0Rodenberg 0 .000 12 0 0 0 Diamantidis 1 -.33 6 0 0 0Totals 59 .252 58 0 13 0

UMES K PCT DIG BS BA BELea’aetoa 19 .483 3 0 1 0 Vaitai 9 .120 9 0 2 0Ibe 5 .308 2 0 4 0Vicic 0 .000 8 0 0 0Iosia 17 .121 11 0 3 0 Bowens 6 .190 7 0 0 0Haynes 0 .000 0 0 1 0Williams 4 .200 0 1 1 0Prado 0 .000 11 0 0 0Nemeth 0 .000 3 0 0 0 Totals 60 .217 54 1 12 0 1 2 3 4Fordham 25 20 28 25UMES 21 25 26 21

Men’s Soccer Fordham 1-0 Columbia FordhamPlayer Sh G AFerrantello 0 0 0Curran 0 0 0Bekoe 0 0 0Gimand 1 0 0Niyonsaba 1 0 0McHugh 1 1 0Stalker 0 0 0Courtenay 0 0 0Seidenthal 0 0 0Richardson 1 0 0 SubstitutesNagel 1 0 0Markowitz 0 0 0Murphy 0 0 0Totals 5 1 0 Gk Min Ga SavMeara 100:00 0 3 ColumbiaPlayer Sh G AShaban 0 0 0Agyapong 0 0 0Daws 0 0 0Najem 1 0 0Sauerbier 2 0 0Mazzullo 2 0 0Vella 0 0 0O’Hearn 1 0 0Stamatis 2 0 0Grigsby 0 0 0 SubstitutesAbraham 0 0 0Young 0 0 0Gagne 0 0 0 Akpandek 0 0 0Anderson 0 0 0Totals 8 0 0 Gk Min Ga SavAurrichio 100:00 1 3 1 2 OT FFordham 0 0 1 1Columbia 0 0 0 0

Fordham 1-2 Adelphi FordhamPlayer Sh G AFerrantello 0 0 0Jolly 0 0 0Bekoe 0 0 0Gimand 1 0 0Niyonsaba 3 0 1Richardson 5 0 0Markowitz 0 0 0McHugh 0 0 0Stalker 0 0 0Seidenthal 1 0 0 SubstitutesCurran 0 0 0Nagel 0 0 0Jerome 0 0 1Murphy 1 1 0Courtenay 1 0 0Bouchard 0 0 0 Totals 12 1 1 Gk Min Ga SavMeara 90:00 2 5 AdelphiPlayer Sh G AMallia 2 0 0Mora 1 0 0Rivera 0 0 0Stoneham 1 1 0Edwards 2 0 0Hibbert 3 0 0Larenius 0 0 0Tall 4 1 0Parrelli 0 0 1Weinzimer 0 0 0 SubstitutesDiana 0 0 0Sundquist 0 0 0Costa 1 0 0Totals 14 2 1 Gk Min Ga SavHerrera 90:00 1 8 1 2 FFordham 0 1 1Drake 2 0 2

Women’s Soccer

Fordham 4-2 Utah Valley FordhamPlayer Sh SOG G AMurphy 1 0 0 1Dougherty 0 0 0 0Worden 3 1 0 1Carballeira 0 0 0 0Canicatti 2 2 0 1Solimine 5 1 0 1Widmann 1 1 0 0Nowakowski 0 0 0 0Romano 2 2 2 0Abrams 0 0 0 0 SubstitutesRooney 1 1 0 0O’Conor 0 0 0 0Wah 0 0 0 0Ker 0 0 0 0Poiesz 4 2 1 0Madasci 0 0 0 0 Maksuti 6 2 1 0 Swift 1 0 0 0 Totals 26 12 4 4 Gk Min Ga SavSuther 90:00 2 6 Utah Valley Player Sh SOG G ABroderick 1 1 0 0Robison 0 0 0 1Janis 0 0 0 0Thomas 2 1 0 0Dunn 0 0 0 0Young 2 1 1 0Curtis 1 0 0 0Cook 0 0 0 0Bastian 0 0 0 0Stratford 2 2 0 0 SubstitutesAllen 0 0 0 0Clifford 3 2 1 0Lyons 2 1 0 0Salmon 0 0 0 0 Burdett 0 0 0 0 Totals 13 8 2 1 Gk Min Ga SavSack 90:00 4 8

1 2 FFordham 1 3 4Utah Valley 1 1 2

Fordham 1-13 Texas A&M Fordham

Player Sh SOG G AMurphy 0 0 0 0Worden 1 0 0 0Carballeira 0 0 0 0Canicatti 0 0 0 0Solimine 0 0 0 0Widmann 0 0 0 0Nowakowski 0 0 0 0Maaksuti 5 2 1 0Romano 1 0 0 0 Abrams 0 0 0 0 SubstitutesRooney 0 0 0 0Dougherty 1 1 0 0Wah 0 0 0 0Poiesz 0 0 0 0Madasci 0 0 0 0Ross 0 0 0 0 Swift 0 0 0 0 Totals 8 3 1 0 Gk Min Ga SavSuther 45:00 5 3 White 45:00 8 6 Texas A&M Player Sh SOG G ABailey 3 1 0 1Lenz 0 0 0 0Streight 3 0 0 1Gnatzig 0 0 0 1Mathias 2 1 0 0West 1 0 0 1Skelton 1 1 1 1Monague 7 4 3 1Jones 2 1 1 2Balaguer 0 0 0 0 SubstitutesHamilton 2 2 1 0Groom 4 3 2 0Kunz 5 4 3 2Perry 1 0 0 1Young 3 1 0 0Edwards 1 1 0 1 Bartley 0 0 0 0Brinson 2 2 1 1Majewski 1 1 1 2Clavijo 0 0 0 1 Totals 38 22 13 16 Gk Min Ga SavDay 90:00 1 2 1 2 FFordham 0 1 1Texas A&M 5 8 13

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Rivera is one of the few closers who is assured of a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Visit theramonline.com for blogs covering NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA,

College Sports and EPL.

SPORTSPAGE 22 THE RA M • SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

By NICK CARROLLEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

As any sports fan has heard re-cently, college football is about to undergo a facelift that will rede-fine sports and competitive bal-ance. The Big 12 and Big East are in grave danger. Oklahoma, Okla-homa State, Texas and Texas Tech seem to be trying to go to the Pac 12, and Texas A&M is headed to the SEC. Pittsburgh and Syracuse are going to the ACC, and Rutgers and UConn could soon follow.

Most of the reaction I have heard has been negative, and honestly, my initial reaction was negative as well.

With that said, if you eliminate the evil imagery that comes along with the idea of power confer-ences, this really might be a good thing.

Yes, Big East basketball is in-credibly competitive and has been some of the nation’s best for the past decade. But if Pitt, Syra-cuse and UConn go to the ACC, they will be taking the style of basketball they helped define to a conference that already has Duke, North Carolina, Maryland and a host of other schools that are rou-tinely competitive. The Big East Tournament will not be the same, but the ACC Tournament will be incredible.

If Texas joins the Pac-12, the conference’s competitiveness in-stantly improves, and its depth is significantly better.

The real impact revolves around the gridiron. The ACC would suddenly have a somewhat legiti-mate football conference, a vast improvement from the current situation where Virginia Tech and Florida State are the only schools that matter, scandals aside.

More importantly, if the Pac-12 does add those four teams, it suddenly has a legitimate 16-team conference with a number of teams that can win a National Championship any year. If the concept of four divisions comes into play, it could pave the way for a four-team playoff for the Pac-12 title. Isn’t this what we want as college football fans?

With the best teams in the country in a handful of confer-ences, it will be a lot easier to compare teams and find a legiti-mate champion.

This isn’t the playoff that fans want, but at least it would help add some clarity to what has been an incredibly frustrating situation. Also, everyone wins; every week still matters in the pursuit of a National Championship, colleges still make money on bowl games and schools may make even more of their super-competitive con-ference titles.

What becomes sticky, though,

is what happens to everyone else. How will the dust settle if the Big East and Big 12 are dismantled?

There are rumors that the two conferences could merge and, if this is a clean merge, that could just add another power confer-ence to the mix.

If this doesn’t happen, though, could it affect Fordham?

Before Fordham hired Tom Pecora, Executive Director of Athletics Frank McLaughlin told me with a sense of urgency that Fordham basketball had to win soon or else significant confer-ence realignment could leave Fordham, a struggling member of the Atlantic 10, on the out-side looking in, when Texas was rumored to the Pac-12 the first time.

In all likelihood, Fordham will not be affected directly. The only concern is that the separation between the major conferences and the mid-major conferences is growing. If Fordham does reach respectability in men’s basketball, it may never be able to take the next step.

Fordham isn’t alone, though, and as these conferences realign there is one common theme: the state schools are the ones forming these super conferences.

Even as the ACC raids the Big East, it grabs Rutgers, which is not competitive in football or basketball, rather than schools like Georgetown, Villanova or Notre Dame, all of whom have had impressive athletic achieve-ments in recent years.

Are college sports, at the na-tional level, becoming a compe-tition limited to state schools? These larger, more athletically-focused universities have always had an advantage, but now the gap seems to be widening even further as they are now literally in differently leagues. Only Boston College is slated to compete in a power conference.

Will these schools still be able to recruit and maintain the same power even when they are un-able to play elite competition be-cause they are being relegated to second-rate conferences? It will be an uphill climb for any small-er school to maintain success if the realignment is as severe as expected, and only the elite will legitimately contend for national prestige.

Even a situation like Boise State, where a smaller school has risen to national prominence, may not be able to repeat itself because it is so far off the beaten track, which is comprised of a handful of huge state schools that will garner all of the fans’ attention.

As a sports fan, these changes could be incredibly exciting. Conference play will lead to showdowns between the best teams in the nation on a weekly basis during football season and a daily basis season during bas-ketball season. We will be even closer to having a clear view as to who is the best team in the nation as they fight it out.

However, the difference be-tween the haves and the have-nots is growing at a rapid rate, and those who are left out of this game of conference musical chairs could potentially suffer the repercussions and never reach their elite status again.

Senior Profi le: Tim RichardsonBy DAN GARTLAND

SPORTS EDITOR

Midfi elder Tim Richardson has been a crucial part of the Fordham men’s soccer team from the day he stepped on campus.

Now in his fourth season, Rich-ardson has started every game for the Rams.

As a freshman he was third on the team in scoring with three goals and three assists. He followed up with an impressive sophomore season in which he led the Rams in scoring with 14 points. He was named At-lantic-10 midfi elder of the year and Fordham team MVP.

As a junior, Richardson tied for the team lead in points with ten and was named First Team All-Mid-Atlantic Region by the NSCAA as well as Sec-ond Team All A-10.

Th e Ram: So, you’re from New Zealand. How did you end up here?

Tim Richardson: Well, I’ve always wanted to play soccer, and the biggest opportunities were here, and you can get a degree with it. Th at combina-tion was the main att raction.

Ram: You knew you wanted to go to college in the United States?

TR: Yeah, I did. Th ere’s sort of lim-ited opportunities back home, and this was just the best opportunity to pursue soccer and a degree.

Ram: Had you been to the United States before you came to Fordham?

TR: I’d been here once before, just for soccer, playing for the New Zea-land Under-20 team.

Ram: Looking back, are you hap-py with your decision?

TR: Yeah, I’m very happy. I had a great time here. I enjoyed the school, the city, the soccer and I’d defi nitely make the same decision again.

Ram: What sort of goals does the team have for the season?

TR: Our goals are to make it to the conference playoff s and go through to the fi nals and win it. We want to be A-10 champions.

Ram: Do you have any personal goals for the season?

TR: I’d like to play well and con-

tribute to the team and just put our team in position to win games.

Ram: What will you remember most about your time at Fordham?

TR: Probably all the friends I’ve made here and all the fun I’ve had with meeting new people and being in a much bigger environment than I’m used to back home.

Ram: What are your plans for next year?

TR: At the moment, I’ll probably be looking to go back home and use my degree and get a job but if some-thing happens here, then I won’t can-cel it out.

Richardson, a midfi elder, has led the Rams in scoring for the past two seasons.PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/ THE RAM

By KELLY KULTYSSTAFF WRITER

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams continued their hot starts to their seasons by claiming fi rst place titles at the C.W. Post Invitational held on Saturday, in Brookville, N.Y.

Individually for Fordham, soph-omore Anisa Arsenault continued her impressive season thus far by winning the women’s race. Anisa was Fordham’s second consecutive winner of the C.W. Post Invitation-al women’s meet, following in the footsteps of Kerri Gallagher, class of 2011, who won it last year.

On the women’s side, Fordham claimed the top fi nish out of 14 teams with 21 points, followed by St. Th omas Aquinas (second- 89 points), Molloy College (third- 95 points), C.W. Post (fourth- 108 points) and Dowling College (fi ft h-142 points). Fordham also had seven runners fi nish in the top 10 and eight fi nish under the 20-minute mark, which contrib-uted to its success.

“As a team, I think this is the best we’ve ever done,” Arsenault said.

Individually, Arsenault set the pace for the fi eld of over 100 run-ners with a time of 18:41.76. In-dira Aliva (19:01.48) of Queens College fi nished second. Fordham freshman Sarah Glockenheimer fi nished fourth with a time of 19:12.33 with teammate freshman Emily Osman fi nishing in fi ft h just

behind her with a time of 19:13.08. Sarah Callagy (19:20.48) of St. Th omas Aquinas placed sixth while Fordham took the rest of the top 10 fi nishers with freshman Danielle Drummond (19:23.39) in seventh, junior Ashley Davis (19:42.93) in eighth, freshman Mara Lieberman (19:49.56) in ninth and senior Nako Nakatsuka (19:49.94) in tenth.

Other runners for Fordham in-cluded junior Christina Machado (13th – 19:57.17), freshman Jil-lian Brooks (18th – 20:25.19), freshman Brianna Tevan (23rd – 20:48.87), sophomore Kerry Sorenson (27th – 20:55.86), sophomore Christina Vivinett o (29th -20:58.75), senior Siobhan Cooney (35th – 21:14.21), senior Fallon France (37th – 21:27.17), sophomore Olivia Hustleby (43rd – 21:49.45) and sophomore Shan-non McKenna (48th - 22:08.92).

On the men’s side, Fordham also took fi rst out of 12 teams, this time with 32 points, beating top com-petitors C.W. Post (second – 77 points), Molloy College (third - 89 points), Dowling College (fourth – 114 points) and Queens College (fi ft h – 143 points).

Individually, Nicholas Fillipazzo of Molly College won the fi ve-mile race in a fi eld of 120+ runners with a time of 26:11.81, beating out Michael Galonski (26:26.13) of St. Th omas Aquinas College who placed second. Sophomore Kevin Harvey fi nished third with a

time of 26:33.33. He was the fi rst Fordham fi nisher and one of four who placed in the top ten. Harvey was followed by teammates senior Matt hew Collins (26:37.77) in fourth and sophomore Ryan Polo (26:38.22) in fi ft h. Hillary Mugun of the University of D.C. placed sixth before senior Richard Gran-delli (seventh – 26:49.65) rounded out Fordham’s top fi nishers.

Other runners for the Fordham team included freshman Wil-liam Slatt ery (13th – 27:14.69), senior Andrew Roddin (14th – 27:16.34), sophomore Timothy Kazanjian (17th – 27:28.36), red-shirt senior Th omas Kelly (21st - 27:38.76), sophomore James Doran (29th – 28:22.19), junior Devin Kelly (46th – 29:06.55), sophomore Patrick Burke (47th – 29:10.53), junior Michael Rossi (62nd – 29:47.58), senior Stephen Donnelly (68th – 30:09.54), junior John Cosgrove (87th – 31:18.79) and junior Carter Ward (105th – 32:54.46).

“It was a very strong race for us,” junior Julian Saad said. “We’re looking forward to a really good year with some big jumps and sur-prises.”

Next weekend is a busy weekend for Fordham’s cross country teams as the teams will be split in order to compete in both the Leeber Invi-tational at Fairfi eld University and the Purple Valley Classic at Wil-liams College, both on Saturday, Sept. 24.

Cross Country Comes in First at C.W. Post

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • THE RA M • PAGE 23SPORTS

Upcoming Varsity ScheduleFriday

Sept. 23Th ursdaySept. 22

SaturdaySept. 24

SundaySept. 25

TuesdaySept. 27

MondaySept. 26

WednesdaySept. 28

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Football

Volleyball Drops Th ree, Falls to 3-8 on the Year

By DAN GARTLANDSPORTS EDITOR

Th e Fordham volleyball team knew it would be tough to replace the six seniors it lost from last year’s team. It just did not think it would be this tough.

Aft er graduating several key contributors from a team that went 17-18 and made the At-lantic-10 Tournament, the Lady Rams will have their work cut out for them if they hope to get back to the playoff s.

Th e team is off to a 3-8 start fol-lowing a disappointing weekend at the Brown Invitational where it dropped two of its three matches.

Th e Lady Rams’ fi rst match was against the host Brown Bears on Friday night.

Fordham performed well statis-tically, posting a .237 hitt ing per-centage to go along with fi ve aces and seven team blocks. Usually stats like these would give a team a good chance to win, but not against Brown, it would turn out.

Th e Bears had a gaudy .338 hit-ting percentage along with seven aces and eight team blocks.

Th ough Fordham trailed in the major statistical categories, the team was able to keep the match close.

Fordham dropped the fi rst two sets 25-19 and 25-17. In the third set, facing match point at 24-21, the Lady Rams were able to keep their heads above water and even the score at 24. Junior Randi Ew-ing had a kill to put Fordham ahead 25-24. A Brown att ack er-ror gave the Lady Rams the set at 27-25 and forced a fourth set.

It appeared that the third set win gave the Lady Rams momen-tum. Th ey led by three, 13-10, and later stretched the lead to four at 16-12 behind strong play from Ewing and sophomore Krissy Buongiorno. Brown won the next four points, however, and tied the set at 16. Th e two teams traded points to make it 18-18 before Brown had another four-point streak and went ahead, for good, 22-18. Brown would win the set 25-21 for a 3-1 win.

Th e following day, Fordham had two chances to put itself in the win column with a match in the morning against Bryant and in the aft ernoon against Maryland-

Eastern Shore.Against Bryant, the Lady Rams

posted an abysmal .038 hitt ing percentage while their opponents hit at a .301 clip. Somehow, the match was closer than the stats indicate.

Bryant did win the fi rst set rather convincingly, 25-14, but Fordham made the next two sets far more interesting. Bryant did end up sweeping the Lady Rams 3-0, but the scores for the fi nal two sets were signifi cantly closer, 25-22 and 25-20.

Aft er losing its fi rst two match-es of the weekend, Fordham’s last chance for a win came against Maryland-Eastern Shore.

Led by senior tri-captain Kim Capicott o, Fordham earned a hard-fought four-set victory. Capicott o tied a career-high with nine kills and posted a .750 hit-ting percentage.

Th e fi rst two sets were close. Fordham took the fi rst one 25-21 but fell 25-20, in the second. A pivotal third set was similarly tight; neither team was able to take control. With the score tied at 26, Buongiorno and fellow sophomore Sarah Konkel came up with back-to-back kills and gave Fordham the win, 28-26.

Leading the match two sets to one, Fordham had a chance to put UMES away in the fourth set. Capicott o stepped up and had six of her nine kills in the fi nal set, in-cluding one that came on match point and gave the Lady Rams the victory.

Capicott o said she was pleased with how her team closed out the tournament.

“Th is weekend was a litt le rocky,” she said. “We had a rough start and struggled to fi nd our game again. Ending the weekend with a win was defi nitely a good feeling, though.”

Th e focus is now on the future as the Lady Rams prepare for their fi rst A-10 match, coming Saturday at home against Rhode Island.

“Overall the weekend pointed out weaknesses that we have to strengthen before conference play,” Capicott o said. “Th at said, it’s very important we work out the kinks before conference. We’re looking to do some big things this year so we have to start it right from the beginning.”

Men’s soccer

Women’s soccer

Women’s Tennis

at Hofstra7 p.m.

Men’s Tennis

at Rhode Island1 p.m.

Cross country

By ERIK PEDERSENSPORTS EDITOR

Last Sunday aft ernoon, like so many others, I spent most of my time watching the NFL. As a die-hard sports fan, it almost seems like a requirement to watch as much football as possible on fall week-ends.

Th ough I cannot pretend that I do not have some level of interest in the sport, I was still left wonder-ing, not for the fi rst time, why this one sport can get so much more att ention than the others. For me, sports as a whole are great to watch for the overall competitiveness and dedication required from the ath-letes, and I have never been able to fi gure out what elevates football in this country (and soccer in the rest of the world) to such a higher status than other sports.

My history as a high school ten-nis player likely contributes to this att itude. Th ough we always had a prett y good team, winning our re-gion of competition twice during my time there, the most recognition we could ever hope to get was the occasional mention of our results on the morning announcements. In Maryland, where I’m from, foot-ball, basketball and lacrosse domi-nate people’s att ention during their respective seasons, with any other sport relegated to the sidelines.

Th e athletic situation at Ford-ham is relatively similar, with foot-ball and basketball easily leading the way in interest. Th is is certainly reasonable; these sports likely gen-erate the most money for the Uni-versity, and there have been some memorable moments from both sports in the last two years, includ-ing quarterback John Skelton, GSB ’10, and safety Isa Abdul-Quddus, GSB ’11, making the NFL and men’s basketball defeating St. John’s in 2010.

Despite this, the University’s best teams during my time here have probably been soft ball (mak-ing the NCAA tournament for

back-to-back seasons) and women’s swimming and diving (winning Fordham’s fi rst ever Atlantic 10 Championship in women’s sports). Th rough Th e Ram, which unlike other college newspapers covers ev-ery varsity sport, these teams do at least get some recognition. But the fact remains that our section’s back cover in the fall and winter seasons will never be anything other than the stories covering our football and basketball teams; they are the only sports that can ever hope to sell-out games at Fordham.

Going back to the country’s NFL obsession, I spent a large amount of my time two Sundays ago covering Fordham’s women’s soccer team at the same time that Week 1 of the NFL’s season began. Att endance was announced at 179 for the Ford-ham game, slightly smaller than the 65,000-plus at most NFL stadiums that weekend; however, as Ford-ham completed a comeback from 3-1 to win in overtime, the excite-ment from both the team and the few fans who showed up to support them was certainly comparable to anything felt by the players at an NFL game. I wish that these sports would be able to get at least some of the att ention which is centered so oft en solely on football, basketball and baseball in this country.

Th ere are, of course, exceptions to this rule, when other sports do manage to be temporarily lift ed to a higher level. For two weeks next summer in London at the Summer Olympics, people across the world will care about swimming, gymnas-tics, track and fi eld and several oth-er sports that normally get litt le to no att ention. Just as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt suddenly became household names in Beijing three years ago, new athletes from less-recognized sports will surely be elevated to star-status in London. Th e same scenario unfolds during the winter Olympics, when people suddenly have an interest in speed skating and snowboarding, and Apolo Anton Ohno is recognized

for something other than “Danc-ing with the Stars.” Hockey gets signifi cantly more att ention in the Olympics than the sport could ever dream of gett ing during the NHL season.

Other smaller sports in America, including soccer, golf and tennis, will also occasionally receive the national spotlight during major events, but almost never at the expense of any breaking news in football, regardless of their level of importance. Th e only times that other American sports can hope to compete with the NFL is during the NBA or MLB playoff s, when in-terest level is at least comparable to regular season NFL games.

I realize that it is naïve to expect the sports landscape in America to change anytime soon, but that does not mean that I will ever un-derstand how such a large number of people can be so invested in football, whether it be college foot-ball on Saturdays or the NFL on Sundays throughout the fall, while other sports struggle to be relevant enough to become the second topic on SportsCenter. Maybe one day I will see what most other American sports fans already have. Until then, though, I will continue to shake my head each week as every possible aspect of college football and the NFL is over-analyzed by the Amer-ican media.

Volleyball

COLUMBIA1 p.m.

Water Polo

Junior Randi Ewing and the Lady Rams are off to a sluggish start this year.

Golf

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Leeber Invitational

Fairfi eld, C.T.

Cornell InvitationalIthaca, N.Y.

Eastern Championshipsat West Point, N.Y.

USTA NTC Collegeiate Inviational TournamentFlushing, N.Y.

URI4 p.m.

SETON HALL7 p.m.

MIT 1 p.m.HARVARD

6 p.m.

PHOTO BY COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

NFL crowds often exceed 80,000 people

PAGE 24SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Rams Overcome Sloppy Start to Keep Liberty Cup at Homecoming

PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM

By NICK CARROLLEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

It really was do or die. Aft er a sloppy start that included two missed fi eld goals and a handful of bad penalties, Columbia had the lead, 7-0, and the ball at Ford-ham’s two yard line with a chance to bury the Rams’ struggling of-fense in a seemingly insurmount-able hole before the end of the fi rst half.

Columbia had all of the mo-mentum, and it was becoming hard not to think back to last year’s Homecoming debacle against As-sumption, when Fordham fell to the Division-II school, 30-24.

Th en, Columbia’s advantage vanished in an instant as Fordham senior linebacker Nick Womack jumped a slant, intercepted junior quarterback Sean Brackett ’s pass and went 100 yards for a touch-down, paving the way for a 21-14 Rams victory.

“I was reading my pass keys and I had seen that he was coming out,” Womack said. “I quickly got back into my coverage zone and it came to me and I just saw the end zone aft er that.”

“We’re ready to go down 14-0, and it doesn’t look like we have anything going,” Head Coach Tom Masella said. “Th at was the biggest play in the game, by far. It was a great play … It switched the whole game around.”

Th e play is tied for the longest in Fordham history. In 1902, John Mullen had a 100-yard rush against Cathedral, in 1996 Robert Davis returned a kick 100 yards and in 2006 Isiejah Allen also had a 100-yard kick return for the Rams.

Th e interception was Womack’s second this season.

“I’m just trying to be a domi-nating fi gure on my team and help us get victories,” Womack said.

Fordham built on its newfound momentum in the second half.

Aft er coming up with a pair of stops against Columbia’s sud-denly cold off ense, freshman wide receiver Sam Ajala put the off ense on the board by taking a quick screen 60 yards for a touchdown to give the Rams a 14-7 lead.

“Th ey were in man coverage and it was just one of those step-back screens,” Masella said. “We blocked really well in the second half on the perimeter and [Ajala] can go. He took it and went. It was well-executed and we caught them in the right defense.”

Columbia put up its best fi ght on a drive midway through the fourth quarter. Th e Lions made it all the way inside the Fordham 20. On third-and-six, Brackett found senior wide receiver Mike Stephens at the three; however, sophomore cornerback Ian Wil-liams jarred the ball loose, forcing Columbia to sett le for a 35-yard fi eld goal att empt, which sopho-more Luke Eddy missed wide to the left .

It did not take the Rams long to capitalize on the mistake; three plays later, senior running back Darryl Whiting broke off a

44-yard run to the Columbia 20.“We got the right defensive look,” Masella said. “Th ey kind of stunt-ed and we hit it right into it.”

Whiting fi nished the day with 100 yards on the day, coming on 18 carries, healthy aft er a knee in-jury limited him against UConn in the season opener.

Two plays aft er Whiting’s big run, freshman quarterback Peter Maetzold found junior running back Carlton Koonce, who was split out at wide receiver, open in the back of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown to extend Ford-ham’s lead to 21-7.

“We converted him,” Masella said. “He’s slash, wide receiver, running back. We got [junior run-ning back] Langston Lacroix back this week, and that’s a great story in itself. He had two knee surger-ies, on his left and right knee. He was a great high school player out of Jersey and he fi nally got back and it allowed us to move Carlton out there.”

Columbia responded and cut the Fordham lead when Brackett found Stephens on a fade for a 10-yard score with 1:41 remaining.

Columbia ultimately fell short on the ensuing kickoff , though, aft er it was unable to recover the onside kick. Despite some inter-esting clock management, most notably when Maetzold launched a pass deep to kill time, rather than punting, which gave the Li-ons a last-second Hail Mary op-portunity, Fordham walked away with a 21-14 win.

Fordham’s defense had a lot to do with the win. Including the crucial Womack interception, Fordham intercepted two passes. In addition to the picks, Ford-ham also recorded fi ve sacks and held the Lions’ top running back, sophomore running back Mar-corus Garrett , to just 42 yards on 15 carries.

“On defense, we like to bring intensity,” Womack said. “Like I

said, it’s att itude. We’re building confi dence and coming out and saying that we need to be this de-fense that makes the plays now. Instead of people thinking we can’t do it, now we’re the defense that can.”

“We had to be physical,” Masella said. “I thought we were physical. We kind of bent but didn’t break. I thought overall it was just anoth-er outstanding outing. Th ey’re go-ing to be the strength of our team this year; we kind of thought that going in. We lost a great player in [sophomore defensive tackle] Jus-tin Yancy so we had to have other kids step up and certainly a lot of those guys up front did that.”

Fordham also received a strong performance from Maetzold, who, despite early struggles, fi nished with 212 yards and two touch-downs. Maetzold also completed 22 of his 30 pass att empts with no turnovers.

“I thought Peter Maetzold

was tight in the fi rst half and he didn’t trust what he was seeing out there,” Masella said. “He had some things out there and in the second half I think all our kids relaxed.

“He didn’t have any turnovers, and in the second half he made some big-time plays for us,” Ma-sella added.

Fordham did have problems on special teams, though. Ju-nior kicker Patrick Murray had a rough day with his fi eld goal att tempts. In the fi rst quarter, Murray was bailed out by a de-fensive penalty when he missed wide to the left ; however, when he was called on to try again, he missed from 40 yards out, this time wide to the right.

Later in the game, Murray came on for a 41-yard fi eld goal, but Fordham had protection is-sues and Columbia blocked the kick.

“We didn’t protect very well

inside,” Masella said. “I think our kids took a play off , it was one of the few they took off .”

Masella called on freshman kicker Michael Marando to relieve Murray from fi eld goal duties aft er the block, but the results did not change. When Marando came in to kick a 45-yard fi eld goal, he missed wide to the left .

“[Murray]’s been such a big part of team now for two years in the kicking game,” Masella said. “And I said, ‘Listen, I just have to make a change.’ And he said, ‘I un-derstand.’ ”

Masella did not commit to a placekicker for next week.

“I just thought it was time to give him a litt le mental break,” Masella said. “He does everything for us. He kicks off , he was kick-ing fi eld goals and punting. Th at’s not his fault. Th at’s our fault. We haven’t gott en a guy in here who’s bett er than him at at least one of those things.”

Despite these issues, along with a slow start from the Fordham of-fense, the Rams picked up the win and evened up their record, 1-1, in addition to capturing the Lib-erty Cup, which was mysteriously in pieces aft er the game.

“It was handed to me in four pieces,” Masella said. “It wasn’t me, I can tell you that, but it came out that way.”

In addition to the Liberty Cup on the line, there was extra buzz for the game because of Home-coming. Th ere were 6,820 people in att endance, the most since Fordham met Holy Cross in 2007 with the Patriot League title at stake.

“It’s great,” Womack said. “It’s a lot of love and I appreciate it. It was a great Homecoming vic-tory.”

Next week, Fordham starts a stretch in which it will play six of seven games on the road, starting with Rhode Island, a team Ford-ham beat 27-25 last season. Th is season, Rhode Island is 0-2 aft er losing to Syracuse to open the season and Massachusett s on Sat-urday, Sept. 17.

Late in the third quarter, freshman receiver Sam Ajala caught a screen pass and ran 60 yards for a touchdown.

Senior linebacker Nick Womack intercepted a pass late in the fi rst half and returned it for a touchdown, tying the score.

PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM