Fordham University
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Fordham University |
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 Latin: Universitas Fordhamensis
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| Motto | Sapientia et Doctrina (Wisdom and Learning) |
| Established | 1841 (as St. John's College) |
| Type | Private, Catholic, Jesuit |
| Endowment | $372 million [1] |
| President | Joseph M. McShane, S.J. |
| Faculty | 681 full time, 475 adjunct |
| Undergraduates | 8,430 |
| Postgraduates | 7,579 (1,652 law) |
| Location | Bronx, Manhattan, and Tarrytown, New York, USA |
| Campus | Rose Hill (Bronx): Urban, 85 acres Lincoln Center (Manhattan): Urban, 8 acres Marymount (Tarrytown): Suburban, 25 acres Louis Calder Center (Armonk): Forest, 114 acres |
| Athletics | 22 NCAA Division I varsity teams, Atlantic 10 Conference, (except football, Patriot League) |
| Colors | Maroon and White |
| Mascot | Ram  |
| Website | www.fordham.edu |
Fordham University is a private, coeducational research university[2] in the United States, with three residential campuses located in and around New York City. Though now officially an independent institution "in the Jesuit tradition", it was originally founded by the Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St. John's College. Fordham is currently one of 28 member institutions in the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
In 2004, enrollment included more than 8,000 undergraduate students and 7,000 graduate students spread over three residential campuses in New York State: Rose Hill in the Bronx, Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and Marymount in Tarrytown. The University also maintains permanent programs in the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom. Fordham awards bachelor's (BA, BFA, and BS), master's, and doctoral degrees.[3]
Fordham University is comprised of five undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools, including the tier-1 Fordham Graduate School of Social Service and the selective Fordham School of Law. The University offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in affiliation with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.[4] The Cooperative Program in Engineering is an educational affiliation between Fordham University and the School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia University, leading in five years to a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University in one of a number of fields.[5]
The University is affiliated with the now-independent Fordham Preparatory School, with which it shares its founding. "The Prep", as it is known colloquially, also shares a geographic boundary with the University, in effect occupying a corner of the Rose Hill campus.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early history (1841-1900)
Fordham University was founded as St. John's College in 1841 by the Irish-born Coadjutor Bishop (later Archbishop) of the Diocese of New York, the Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes. The College was the first Catholic institution of higher education in the northeastern United States. Bishop Hughes purchased Rose Hill Manor in the Bronx, then part of Westchester County, at $30,000 for the purpose of establishing the school. Rose Hill is the name given to the site in 1787 by Robert Watts, a wealthy New York merchant, in honor of his family's ancestral home of the same name in Scotland.
St. John's College opened with a student body of six on June 24, 1841. The Reverend John McCloskey (later Archbishop of New York, eventually to become the first American Cardinal) was its president, and the faculty were secular priests and lay instructors. The College was paired with a seminary, St. Joseph's, which had been founded in 1839 and was in the charge of Italian Lazarists (also known as "Vincentians"). St. Joseph's Seminary closed in 1861, to reopen as a new institution some years later in Troy, New York, and finally as St. Josesph's Seminary in the Dunwoodie section of Yonkers, NY.
On April 10, 1846 St. John's College received its charter from the New York state legislature to grant degrees in theology, arts, law, and medicine. Also in 1846, Bishop Hughes convinced a group of Jesuits working in Kentucky to move to New York and staff his new school. Part of the agreement between Hughes and the Jesuits was that they would also open a school in what was then the city proper, and they lost little time in doing so. In September of 1847, the first school in Manhattan with a connection to what would become Fordham University opened its doors on the Lower East Side of the city, on Elizabeth and Walker Streets, across the street from the border of the notorious "Five Points" neighborhood. A devastating fire five months later forced the new school to move to the basement of St. James Catholic Church to finish its first year of operation. From 1848 to 1850, the school operated out of rented space on Third Avenue in the East Village, until its first permanent home was constructed on West 15th Street, just off of Sixth Avenue. In 1861, this school, (the name changed to the College of St. Francis Xavier) was granted its own charter and became an independent institution, although many ties remained between the Jesuits of St. John's College in the Bronx and those at the new College of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.
[edit] A new century (1901-1950)
With the addition of a (now defunct) medical school and, in 1905, a law school, the name was changed to Fordham University in 1907 (despite the original name of the school, Fordham has never had any connection with St. John's University). The name Fordham ("ford by the hamlet") refers to the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which the Rose Hill campus is located. This neighborhood was named either as a reference to the colonial settlement that was located near a shallow crossing of the Bronx River, or as a reference to Rev. John Fordham, an Anglican priest.
Fordham University Press, a member the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) since 1938, was established in 1907 not only to represent and uphold the values and traditions of the University itself, but also to further those values and traditions through the dissemination of scholarly research and ideas. The press publishes primarily in the humanities and the social sciences, with an emphasis on the fields of philosophy, theology, history, classics, communications, economics, sociology, business, political science, and law, as well as literature and the fine arts. Additionally, the press publishes books focusing on the metropolitan New York region and books of interest to the general public.
In 1913, the decision was made to close the College of St. Francis Xavier -- though leaving the associated Xavier High School intact -- and Fordham began opening schools in Manhattan once again, then at the Woolworth Building in the Financial District (the tallest building in the world at the time). Due to the ornate lobby of this skyscraper, the students soon began referring to it as the "marble campus" of Fordham in contrast to the then rural nature of the Rose Hill campus. Various colleges flourished at the Woolworth Building over the years, including Fordham College–Manhattan Division, the College of Business Administration, and the Undergraduate School of Education. In the midst of World War II, Fordham moved its Manhattan schools to a new location a few blocks north of City Hall at 302 Broadway. The Fordham College of Liberal Studies traces its founding to this period, evolving from Ignatius College which held classes on both campuses. In the years following World War II, Fordham in Manhattan continued to flourish, and the University was soon looking for a larger space to house its "downtown" schools.
First broadcast in 1947, WFUV 90.7 FM in New York City, is Fordham University's 50,000-watt radio station. It is now a National Public Radio affiliate, and still has a strong student-run news and sports department, though much of the other programming is staffed by professionals. The studios are located in Keating Hall on the Rose Hill campus, and the transmitter is located atop Montefiore Medical Center.
[edit] Changes and Opportunities (1951-2000)
Fordham's great opportunity came in the mid-1950s, when it was invited to be part of the Lincoln Square Renewal Project, seeking to replace substandard housing on the city's west side with a new performing arts complex that would become known as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Fordham was the first of the city's institutions involved in the project to fully sign on, purchasing most of the property from West 60th Street to West 62nd Street between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. Part of the opening sequence of the movie West Side Story (the story was set in the neighborhood) was filmed on Fordham's property before construction began, and in 1961 Fordham's Law School was the first building to open in the Lincoln Square Renewal Project. Later the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, and the Juilliard School would join Fordham in the neighborhood as part of this project. As work on Fordham's Leon Lowenstein Building progressed, the University decided to phase out the various undergraduate colleges it conducted at 302 Broadway and replace them with a new school, "The Liberal Arts College." In January of 1969, its second semester of operation, the new college moved into its permanent home in the Lowenstein Building at the Lincoln Center campus. The Law School and the undergraduate college were soon joined by the Graduate School of Business Administration, the Graduate School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Service.
In 1969 the board of trustees was reorganized to include a majority of non-clergy members, and officially made the University an independent institution. After 133 years as a college for men, the Fordham College at Rose Hill became coeducational in 1974, as a result of the merger with Thomas More College (the University’s coordinate college for women opened in 1967).
Since its opening in 1968, the undergraduate college in Manhattan has has had the name changed from "The Liberal Arts College" to "The College at Lincoln Center" and in 1996 to Fordham College at Lincoln Center. In 1993, a twenty-story, 850-bed residence hall was added to the campus, along with other campus improvements.
[edit] The University expands (2001-present)
Marymount College, an independent women's college founded in 1907 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (R.S.H.M.) was consolidated into Fordham University in July of 2002. It had been steeped in financial hardship since the 1970s,
In August of 2005, the University announced a multi-year, $1 billion proposed master plan to add 1.5 million square feet of academic, student activities, and dormitory space to the Lincoln Center campus. The development of the campus will begin with the expansion of Quinn Library and the construction of a new Law School building, a new student center, a dormitory, and additional parking. Future phases of the development plan include the construction of new space for Fordham College of Liberal Studies, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Graduate School of Business, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the Graduate School of Education.[6]
In October of 2005, the University's Board of Trustees declared that Marymount College would be phased out of the Institution by June of 2007. The campus in Tarrytown, New York, instead, will (in part) become home to Fordham's Graduate School of Religion & Religious Education and no longer an undergraduate women's college. Officials cited financial infeasibility as the cause of the college's elimination.
[edit] Academics
[edit] Academic Ideals
"For most students, the Roman Catholic influence is positive," one reads in The Fiske Guide to Colleges 1998, "and many students say that the Jesuit tradition is the school's best attribute." That tradition and attitude towards the student is summarized by the University in its own literature: "The approach begins with a deep respect for you as an individual and your potential, a principle the Jesuits call cura personalis. Because they respect you, our faculty will challenge you to strive for ever greater personal excellence in all aspects of life — intellectual, emotional, moral, and physical. That principle, called magis, accounts for the rigor of intellectual exchange and the varied challenges you will experience in New York City and the world beyond."[7]
[edit] Colleges and schools
Fordham University comprises five undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools.
[edit] Undergraduate colleges
- Fordham College at Rose Hill (1841)
- Marymount College of Fordham University (1907)
- College of Business Administration (1920)
- Fordham College of Liberal Studies (1944)
- Fordham College at Lincoln Center (1968)
[edit] Graduate schools
- School of Law (1905)
- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1916)
- Graduate School of Education (1916)
- Graduate School of Social Service (1916)
- Graduate School of Business Administration (1969)
- Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (1969)
[edit] Libraries
The Fordham University libraries own more than 2 million volumes, subscribe to over 15,500 periodicals and 19,000 electronic journals, and serve as a depository for United States Government documents. The libraries own many special collections of rare books and manuscripts covering a variety of subjects including Americana, Jesuitica, the French Revolution, and Criminology. The libraries also provide access to more than 200 electronic databases and over 60,000 electronic books.[8]
- The William D. Walsh Family Library, which opened in 1997 at the Rose Hill campus, contains over 1 million volumes and 380,000 government documents. In its 2004 edition of The Best 351 Colleges, the Princeton Review ranked Fordham's Walsh Library fifth in the country.
- The Gerald M. Quinn Library at the Lincoln Center campus (in the Lowenstein building) contains some 500,000 volumes. In addition to a general collection serving Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Quinn Library also has strong collections in business, education, and social service serving the three graduate schools on that campus.
- The Gloria Gaines Memorial Library at the Marymount campus houses over 130,000 volumes and serves the students at Marymount College as well as the Fordham graduate students in business, education, and social service.
- The Leo T. Kissam Memorial Law Library at the Lincoln Center campus (in the Law School building) contains over 326,000 volumes, 1 million microforms, and 5,270 periodicals. Subject strengths include American and international law, with many foreign legal sources including European Community law and international antitrust law.
[edit] Academic reputation
Fordham is listed as one of the top seventy national universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. The Washington Monthly rankings, meant as a public-interest focused alternative to the U.S. News rankings, places Fordham at 41st in the nation, overall.[9] In 2004, the Graduate School of Social Service was ranked 14th nationally by U.S. News & World Report. Fordham University School of Law, the 15th most selective law school in the United States, is ranked 25th in the nation in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. In 2007, BusinessWeek magazine ranked Fordham's College of Business Administration 34th nationally and 5th in "Return on Investment."
[edit] Campuses
Fordham University has three residential campuses: Rose Hill in the Bronx, Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and Marymount in Tarrytown, New York. The University also has a biological field station in Armonk, New York and two international locations: The Beijing International MBA (BIMBA[10]) in Beijing, China, and the London Center, home to the London Drama Academy.[11]
The undergraduate Fordham College of Liberal Studies holds classes on all three residential campuses, utilizing the same faculty and course requirements as the other colleges in the University. However, it provides options for both full-time and part-time sudy, unconventional scheduling, and the flexibility of multiple campuses in order to accommodate students who are employed full-time or otherwise unable to take advantage of the offerings at the other undergraduate colleges.
[edit] Rose Hill
The Rose Hill campus, established in 1841, is home to the undergraduate Fordham College at Rose Hill, the College of Business Administration, and a portion of the Fordham College of Liberal Studies as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School of Religion & Religious Education. Located on 85 acres in the north Bronx, it is among the largest "green campuses" in New York City. The campus is bordered by the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and "Little Italy of the Bronx" on Arthur Avenue. Rose Hill's traditional collegiate Gothic architecture, cobblestone streets, and green expanses of lawn have been used as settings in a number of feature films over the years. Among the 15 campus dormitories are Fordham's three residential colleges: O'Hare Hall[1], Tierney Hall[2], and Queen's Court[3] (the last dating back to the days of St. John's College, with its notable Bishop's Lounge).[4] About 6,284 undergraduates and graduates attend, with 3,143 in residence.
[edit] Lincoln Center
The Lincoln Center campus, established in 1961, is home to the undergraduate Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a portion of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, as well as the School of Law, the Graduate School of Business Administration[12], the Graduate School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Service. Located on eight landscaped acres, the campus occupies the area from West 60th Street to West 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, in the cultural heart of Manhattan. Across the street is one of the world's great cultural centers, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; nearby are Central Park, Broadway, and Columbus Circle. About 8,000 professional and undergraduate students attend, with approximately 853 in residence in apartment-style housing.[13] The Lincoln Center campus currently consists of the Leon Lowenstein Building, McMahon Hall dormitory, Quinn Library, and the Law School Building. Fordham offices are also housed at 33 W. 60th St and 888 W. 57th St.
[edit] Marymount
The 25-acre Tarrytown campus was officially established in 2002 when Marymount College, Tarrytown, consolidated with Fordham. Located 25 miles north of New York City in Tarrytown, New York, the campus is home to the all-female undergraduate Marymount College of Fordham University and a branch of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, as well as extensions of the graduate schools of education, social service, and business administration. Marymount College will be phased out in 2007; however, the campus will remain active and be renamed the Marymount campus, supporting numerous programs and graduate schools.
[edit] Louis Calder Center
The Louis Calder Center is Fordham's biological field station for ecological research and environmental education. Located 30 miles north of New York City in Armonk, New York, it is the only full-time ecological research field station in the New York metropolitan area. The station consists of 113 forested acres with a 10-acre lake and 19 buildings, which are used for laboratory and office space, educational programs, equipment storage, and residences. The station's state-of-the-art equipment, research library, greenhouses, and housing are available for research and educational programs for students, faculty, and visiting scientists.[14]
[edit] Beijing, People's Republic of China
Fordham's Beijing campus[15], founded in 1998, is the site of the Beijing International MBA Program (BIMBA), which enrolls over 400 students a year in traditional part-time and full-time MBA programs, and in Executive MBA (EMBA) programs. Peking University is affiliated with the BiMBA program -- the first foreign MBA degree to be approved by the Chinese Government -- and ranked number 1 in China by Fortune Magazine .
[edit] London Center, United Kingdom
Founded in the 1970s by Marymount College and a select group of tutors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London Drama Academy (LDA) at Fordham's London Center provides a lively, intensive, high-quality introduction to the principles of British acting and allows students to perfect their craft using practical rather than strictly theoretical approaches.
Those who attend LDA receive focused training that further develops their skills. Through semester-and year-long sessions at the London Centre location in the famous Bloomsbury area of the city, LDA students take classes taught by RADA-trained, working theatre professionals—many of whom are experienced performers with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
During the summer, the College of Business Administration holds marketing classes in the Center to allow business students a hands-on approach to the global business market.
[edit] Athletics
For more detailed information see Fordham University Athletics
The Fordham varsity sports teams are known as the "Rams." Their colors are maroon and white.
The University supports 22 men's and women's varsity teams and a number of club teams, plus a significant intramural sports program. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference in all sports except football. In football, the Rams play in the Patriot League of NCAA Division I-AA. The Rams were the 2003 Patriot League champions.
Fordham athletics gained early fame for college football in the beginning of the 20th century, particularly with the success of the famous "Seven Blocks of Granite". In addition, the University launched the careers of dozens of professional baseball players, including a Hall of Fame inductee.
[edit] Student activities
Fordham University promotes and supports dozens, if not hundreds, of organized student activities.[16] The following are just the briefest of examples.
[edit] Student publications
- The Fordham Ram (commonly known as The Ram), student newspaper, published from the Rose Hill campus since 1918. The Ram is the University's journal of record.
- The Observer, Fordham University's award-winning[17] student newspaper, published from the Lincoln Center campus since 1981.
- The Paper, Fordham University's journal of news, analysis, comment, and review.
- Fordham Law Review, the most widely-cited of the law school's six scholarly journals serving the legal profession and the public by discussing current legal issues.
[edit] Media: Radio/TV
WFUV, 90.7 FM in New York City, is Fordham University's 50,000-watt radio station. First broadcast in 1947, the station serves approximately 280,000 listeners weekly in the New York area and thousands more globally on the Web (wfuv.org). The station is a National Public Radio affiliate, and mainly has an adult album alternative format, although it does carry programs which play music from other genres, such as folk music, jazz, and Celtic music. [18] The station has strong student-run news and sports departments.
Fordham Nightly News (FNN), Fordham University's evening news program since 2004, was created by and is produced by students. FNN is a part of radio WFUV News, and its directors are part-time staff at NBC News, CBS News, CBS Radio. The program is produced 4 nights weekdays (no Wednesday broadcast), and has built up a management structure with about 35 staff -- from on-air talent to technical production. FNN is on a closed-circuit channel, EIC-TV10, and reports current topics including local and international news, entertainment, sports, and weather. [19]
[edit] Global Outreach
For more details on Global Outreach! see Global Outreach! Program, Fordham University
Global Outreach! (commonly known as GO!), is a student led, university sponsored organization dedicated to educating students about issues of social justice and individual responsibility through service trips to global and domestic locations. Separate programs on each campus currently sponsor 27 annual trips ranging from Thailand to East New York, and dealing with such diverse issues as public health, affordable housing, migrant labor, and disaster relief.
[edit] Military Science
For information on the history of the ROTC at Fordham, see New York City ROTC at Fordham University
Military Science is a program available to all undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of their college or major. The Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program qualifies students for appointment as officers of the United States Army, Army Reserve or Army National Guard. Students (other than those with ROTC scholarships) attend the first two years of study without incurring any obligation to serve in the military. The regular course of study includes military science classes. Additionally, a variety of challenging extracurricular activities are open to all students. These include: the regional Ranger Challenge and the international Sandhurst Competitions - intercollegiate "extreme" sports; Color Guard; Pershing Rifles; Drill Team; the Association of the United States Army Ram Company; and an Army 10 Miler Running Team. In addition, cadets have the opportunity to participate in a variety of military social events, including the annual military ball, Dining in.
Other academic institutions that can participate in Fordham's ROTC program are: City College of The City University of New York, College of New Rochelle, Columbia University, Iona College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The King's College, Lehman College, Marist College, Monroe College, Mount Saint Mary College, New School University, New York University, Pace University, Polytechnic University of New York, and Vaughn College.
Fordham students may participate in the Air Force ROTC hosted at Manhattan College nearby the Rose Hill campus of Fordham, and the Navy ROTC hosted at Maritime College, State University of New York, also relatively convenient to Rose Hill.
[edit] Legacies
[edit] Notable alumni
- For a more extensive sampling of notable alumni, see the List of Fordham University people.
Among the notable people who have attended Fordham are: Alan Alda, six-time Emmy Award and six-time Golden Globe Award-winning actor; Mary Higgins Clark, best-selling suspense novelist; Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman Vice Presidential candidate of a major political party; Vince Lombardi, football coaching legend; Charles Osgood, three-time Emmy Award and two-time Peabody Award-winning journalist and Radio Hall of Fame inductee; Vin Scully, Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, Baseball Hall of Famer, and Radio Hall of Famer; and Denzel Washington, two-time Academy Award and two-time Golden Globe Award-winning actor.
 Photo: Alan Light |
[edit] Notable faculty
This list is intended as a sampling
- Joseph Abboud, fashion designer
- Bruce Andrews poet and theorist on state and global capitalism
- Daniel Berrigan, S.J., poet-in-residence
- W. Norris Clarke, S.J., philosopher and noted authority on St. Thomas Aquinas
- Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., noted theologian, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
- Victor Francis Hess[20], Nobel Laureate for physics
- William T. Hogan, S.J., economist and noted authority on the steel industry
- J. Quentin Lauer, S.J., philosopher and noted authority on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Paul Levinson, author of The Plot To Save Socrates and winner of the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel
- James Marsh, radical philosopher and noted authority on Marx
- Mark Massa, S.J., authority on American Catholicism
- William O'Malley, S.J., actor in the film The Exorcist, for which he was also a technical advisor; author of numerous books
- Diana Villiers Negroponte , professor of history and law; wife of US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte
- Lawrence J. Sacharow, OBIE Award-winning playwright
[edit] University Presidents
- His Eminence John Cardinal McCloskey 1841-43
- Most Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley 1844-46
- Rev. Augustus J. Thebaud, S.J. 1846-51 and 1859-63
- Rev. John Larkin, S.J. 1851-54
- Rev. Remigius I. Tellier, S.J. 1854-59
- Rev. Edward Doucet, S.J. 1863-65
- Rev. William Moylan, S.J. 1865-68
- Rev. Joseph Shea, S.J. 1868-74
- Rev. William Gockeln, S.J. 1874-82
- Rev. Patrick F. Dealy, S.J. 1882-85
- Rev. Thomas F. Campbell, S.J. 1885-88 and 1896-1900
- Rev. John Scully, S.J. 1888-91
- Rev. Thomas Gannon, S.J. 1891-96
- Rev. George A. Pettit, S.J. 1900-04
- Most Rev. John J. Collins, S.J. 1904-06
- Rev. Daniel J. Quinn, S.J. 1906-11
- Rev. Thomas J. McCluskey, S.J. 1911-15
- Rev. Joseph A. Mulry, S.J. 1915-19
- Rev. Edward P. Tivnan, S.J. 1919-24
- Rev. William J. Duane, S.J. 1924-30
- Rev. Aloysius J. Hogan, S.J. 1930-36
- Rev. Robert I. Gannon, S.J. 1936-49
- Rev. Laurence J. McGinley, S.J. 1949-63
- Rev. Vincent T. O'Keefe, S.J. 1963-65
- Rev. Leo J. McLaughlin, S.J. 1965-69
- Rev. Michael P. Walsh, S.J. 1969-72
- Rev. James C. Finlay, S.J. 1972-84
- Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J. 1984-2003
- Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. 2003-present [21]
[edit] Fordham traditions
[edit] The Great Seal
The Great Seal of Fordham University bears the coat of arms of the Society of Jesus at the center. The shield bears the Greek letters of the name Jesus, IHS, with the cross resting in the horizontal line of the letter "H", three nails beneath (evoking those used in the crucifixtion of Jesus), all in gold in a field framed in maroon, the color of the University, with silver fleurs-de-lis (reminiscent of the French origin of the first Jesuit instructors) on the edge of the maroon frame. Around the shield, a scroll with the University's motto in latin, Sapienta et Doctrina (Wisdom and Learning), is etched. The scroll rests on a field in which tongues of fire are displayed, recalling the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom that marked the first Pentecost. A laurel above the shield has engraved the names of the disciplines that were taught when the school was granted university status in 1907: arts, science, philosophy, medicine, and law. Surrounding the entire seal is a heraldic belt, which has engraved the name of the school in Latin, Universitas Fordhamensis, and year of foundation.[22]
[edit] Fordham Maroon
There is as much myth as there is truth surrounding the history of Fordham's college color: Maroon was not the original color, magenta was. Magenta was used on the uniforms of Fordham's "base-ball nines." The color was also used by Fordham's archrival, Harvard.[23]
Both institutions claimed prior right to use of magenta, and neither institution was willing to make concessions. Since it was "improper" for two schools to be wearing the same colors, the matter was to be settled by a series of baseball games. The winning team could lay claim to magenta. The losing team would have to find another color. Fordham won, but Harvard reneged on its promise.[24]
That was the situation in 1874 when the student body gathered at the college to meet Rev. William Gockeln, S. J., the newly installed College president. One of the matters discussed at this historic meeting was that of choosing an official college color that would belong to Fordham and Fordham alone. With matters at a standstill, Stephen Wall '75, suggested maroon, a color not widely used at the time.[25]
In a letter that Wall subsequently wrote to the editors of the Fordham Monthly in 1907, he stated, "I was asked what maroon was and the only way I could explain it was that it looked something like claret wine with the sun shining through it, but I said that, if I was given time, I would produce a piece of maroon ribbon. So I was accorded the privilege, and I wrote to my sister to send me a piece of maroon ribbon and velvet. These samples came in due course and were submitted to the committee. It received the unanimous approval of the committee, was adopted and has been the color that has carried Fordham through many a victory."[26]
An ironic footnote: Harvard also stopped using magenta -- in favor of crimson, however.[27]
[edit] The Ram
The ram evolved into Fordham's mascot and symbol from a slightly vulgar cheer that Fordham fans sang during an 1893 football game against the Military Academy at West Point. The students began cheering "One-damn, two-damn, three-damn...Fordham!" The song was an instant hit but "damn" was sanitized to "Ram" to conform to the university's image (Schroth 2002:107).
[edit] The Victory Bell
The "Victory Bell", which is mounted outside the Rose Hill Gym, is from the Japanese aircraft carrier Junyō. According to the plaque below the bell, it was recovered near Saipan where it was "silenced by an aerial Bomb." It was given to Fordham as a gift by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz "as a Memorial to Our Dear Young Dead of World War II." It was blessed by Cardinal Spellman, and "was first rung at Fordham by the President of the United States, the Honorable Harry S. Truman on May 11, 1946, the Charter Centenary of the University." It is rung by each Fordham senior player after victorious home football games and its ringing also marks the start of the commencement ceremonies each May. A small group of students rang the bell on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in honor of the war dead.
[edit] The Rose Hill Gymnasium
The men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the volleyball squad, play in the Rose Hill Gymnasium, the oldest gym still in use at the NCAA Division I level. The 3,200 seat gym opened on January 16, 1925 and was one of the largest on-campus facilities at the time it was built, earning the nickname "The Prairie" because of its large floor space. The arena has been in continuous use by Fordham's basketball teams since its opening with the exception of the World War II years, when it was used for a barracks.
[edit] William Spain Seismic Observatory
Since 1910, when the Rev. Edward P. Tivnan, SJ, installed a seismograph in the basement of the administration building at the Rose Hill Campus, Fordham has been the site of the oldest seismic station in New York City. William Spain Seismic Observatory has since measured much of the world's natural and unnatural trembling, including earthquakes, China's first atomic explosion in 1964, and local subway trains.
The station opened in 1924 and sits at the edge of Edward's Parade in the center of the campus, next to Freeman Hall, home of the department of physics. It is named in honor of a physics student who died in 1922 and whose father donated the money to build the station.
[edit] Songs
Fordham's school song is "Alma Mater Fordham":
- O Alma Mater Fordham, How mighty is thy power
- to link our hearts to thee in love that grows with every hour.
- Thy winding walks, Thy hallowed halls
- Thy lawns, Thine ivy-mantled walls;
- O Fordham Alma Mater, what mem'ries each recalls.
- O Alma Mater Fordham, while yet the life blood starts
- Shined by thy sacred image within our heart of hearts.
- And in the years that are to be,
- May life and love be true to me,
- O Fordham Alma Mater, as I am true to thee.[28]
[edit] Recordings and other songs
[edit] Affiliations
This is an introductory listing, and may reflect only a portion of the many affiliations the University maintains.[29]
Fordham University is affiliated with the following:
- American Council on Education
- Association of Governing Boards
- National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
- Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities
- Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
- Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities
- International Federation of Catholic Universities
- Fulbright Association
- Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
- Center for Academic Integrity
- National Collegiate Athletic Association
- National Association of Graduate Schools
- Council of Graduate Schools of the United States
- Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools
- Graduate Schools in Catholic Colleges and Universities
It is an accredited member of:
- Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools
- Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
- American Bar Association (ABA)
- Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Social Work (CSW)
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
The University is also a member of:
- American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education
- Collegiate Association for Development of Educational Administration (New York State)
- Association of University Evening Colleges
The University has chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, national honor societies; Alpha Sigma Nu, the national honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities; Beta Gamma Sigma, the national honor society of accredited schools of business; Beta Alpha Psi, the honor society of accounting, and Alpha Sigma Lambda, the national honor society for non-traditional students.
There are chapters of the Society of Sigma Xi, a national honorary scientific research organization established to recognize and foster the scientific spirit in American colleges and to provide both stimulus and acknowledgement for independent scientific research; Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society for political science students; Alpha Mu Gamma, the national honor society for foreign languages.
Fordham also has chapters of Phi Delta Kappa and Kappa Delta Pi, both honor societies in education, and is accredited on both the undergraduate and graduate levels in teacher education by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
Fordham University has chapters of other honor societies which are major specific.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Fordham as a filming location
[edit] Movies
- Awake
- A Beautiful Mind
- A Bronx Tale
- Center Stage
- The Exorcist
- The Gambler
- The Iron Major
- Kinsey
- Love Story
- Quiz Show
- The Verdict
[edit] Television
- Naked City (episode: Tombstone for a Derelict, 4/5/61; then-unknown Robert Redford plays a Neo-Nazi student)
[edit] Music videos
[edit] Other notes
- James Fenimore Cooper, who lived nearby, used Rose Hill Manor as the setting for his 1821 novel, The Spy.[30]
- The Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes, founder of St. John's College (progenitor of Fordham University) was nicknamed "Dagger John" because the fact that he always drew a dagger-like cross next to his signature and, allegedly, because of his personality. The pub, "Dagger John's", at the Rose Hill campus is named for him.
- Edgar Allan Poe, who lived near Fordham's Rose Hill campus and would frequently visit the Jesuits who he had befriended, was inspired by the ringing of the bell of the University Church to pen his 1849 poem The Bells. The bell is known since as "Old Edgar Allan".[31]
- On September 30, 1939, Fordham participated in the world’s first televised football game. In front of the sport’s first live TV audience, the Rams defeated Waynesburg College, 34-7. The following week they lost the second ever televised game to the University of Alabama, 7-6. It was not for another month that a professional NFL game was televised.
- On February 28, 1940, Fordham hosted the University of Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden in the first ever televised basketball game. Pittsburgh won, 57-37.
- One of Fordham's dormitory buildings, Walsh Hall, was built facing the street as a condition of the loan Fordham received from New York City. If Fordham had defaulted on the loan, the city would have converted it into a housing project, however this did not occur and the building's entrance still confusingly faces the street on the edge of the Rose Hill campus instead of the interior of the campus.
- Rev. William O'Malley, a Jesuit and professor at Fordham Prep, played Father Dyer in the 1973 film The Exorcist. In addition, scenes from the film were shot on Fordham's campus, including the language lab scene, which was filmed in Keating Hall, and the bedroom scene, which was filmed in Hughes Hall.
- There are also two open, grassy plazas at the Lincoln Center Campus, built over the Quinn Library, one level up from the street. The larger plaza is unnamed, but the smaller one is known alternately as Robert Moses Plaza or St. Peter's Garden. A memorial to Fordham students and alumni who died on 9/11 stands in St. Peter's Garden. Ironically, according to Fordham's expansion plan, Robert Moses Plaza may be built over, just as he razed and built over the neighborhood where Fordham and all of Lincoln Center now stands.
- In the American television sitcom Spin City (1995-2002), New York City Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (played by Michael J. Fox) was a Fordham graduate, and can often be seen wearing a Fordham jacket.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.fordham.edu/student_affairs/residential_life/rose_hill/residence_halls/ohare_hall_residenti_19848.asp
- ^ http://www.fordham.edu/student_affairs/residential_life/rose_hill/residence_halls/tierney_hall_residen_19851.asp
- ^ http://www.fordham.edu/student_affairs/residential_life/rose_hill/residence_halls/queens_court_residen_19849.asp
- ^ http://www.fordham.edu/bulletins/pdf/undrgrd_blltn_04_06/fordhm_undrgrd_bulltn_04_06_complete.pdf
[edit] Further reading
- Fred C. Feddeck. Hale Men of Fordham: Hail!. Trafford Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-55212-577-7
- Fordham University Staff, Office of the Sesquicentennial. As I Remember Fordham: Selections from the Sesquicentennial Oral History Project. Fordham University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8232-1338-2
- Robert Ignatius Gannon, S.J. Up to the Present: the story of Fordham. Doubleday, 1967. ISBN not available
- Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Fordham: A History and Memoir. Jesuit Way, Chicago 2002. ISBN 0-8294-1676-5
- Thomas Gaffney Taaffe. A History of St. John's College, Fordham, N.Y. The Catholic Publication Society Co., 1891. ISBN not available
[edit] External links
- Fordham University web site
- Fordham Athletics
- Fordham's Young Alumni Page
- Unofficial Fordham Athletics Message Board
- Fordham Law
- Fordham University Press
- Fordham University's Library web site
- The Sixth Man Club, Fordham's A-10 Basketball Booster Club
- The Ram, based at the Rose Hill campus, student newspaper and Fordham University's journal of record.
- The Observer, Award-Winning[32], Lincoln Center campus based student newspaper
- WFUV radio
- Fordhamensis, Fordham-centered online community.
- The Fordham Ramblers, Fordham's all-male a cappella group
- The Fordham b-Sides, Fordham's co-ed a cappella group
| The Atlantic 10 |
|---|
| Charlotte • Dayton • Duquesne • Fordham • George Washington • La Salle • UMass • Rhode Island • Richmond • Saint Bonaventure • Saint Joseph's • Saint Louis • Temple • Xavier |
| Patriot League |
|---|
| Bucknell • Colgate • Holy Cross • Lafayette • Lehigh Non-football members: American • Army • Navy Football-only members: Fordham • Georgetown Women's Lacrosse-only member: Villanova |
Categories: Patriot League | Atlantic 10 Conference | Fordham University | Fordham University alumni | Universities and colleges in New York City | Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States | Roman Catholic universities and colleges in the United States | Historically Irish-American universities and colleges | Educational institutions established in 1841 | Universities and colleges in New York
