This semester, the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis worked with the Fordham investment office to establish a $500,000 fund to be managed and invested exclusively by the Fordham chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a student club whose mission is to educate undergraduate women on finance through weekly seminars, mentoring initiatives, and exposure to successful professionals and businesses. 

The fund is the result of a generous gift to the University’s endowment from Mario Gabelli, a 1965 graduate of the Fordham business school that now bears his name.

“We are deeply grateful to Mario Gabelli for his generosity in creating this opportunity for our students,”said Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School of Business. “By entrusting our undergraduate students with real investment decisions, this fund enhances our value investing program and empowers future women leaders in finance.”

The Smart Woman Securities Value Fund is distinct from Fordham’s Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF)—a global fund that encompasses stocks, bonds, and alternative assets. The new fund is designed to be an equity fund and, unlike SMIF, a two-semester undergraduate course, will be managed through the Smart Woman Securities (SWS) club. Both funds complement the Gabelli School’s academic concentration in value investing, giving students an opportunity to put classroom learning into action.

Paul Johnson, a faculty member and executive director of the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, championed the Fordham club for its track record of excellence and growth.

“Getting to know the SWS women well, I recognized that they have earned the opportunity and are the right home for the fund,” Johnson said. “The more time I spent with them, the more I was amazed. They are completely bootstrapped, completely self-managed, with almost no outside support—the women that run SWS are incredibly impressive.”

The fund was introduced at an April 1 networking reception at the Lincoln Center campus that brought together students and alumni of SMIF and SWS. Since 2010, SMIF has helped many Fordham graduates launch careers in finance. 

This spring, SWS leadership is focused on building the infrastructure for executing the fund, Johnson said. That includes drafting an investment memorandum with input and guidance from the Fordham investment office and faculty advisors, finalizing investment criteria, choosing analysts and portfolio managers, and training students to source and pitch investment ideas. 

“We are so proud to launch the SWS investment fund, an incredible milestone for our chapter,” said Raimy Little, the club’s chief executive officer. “While other SWS chapters nationwide do have funds, the significance for the club at Fordham is profound.”

She said the club is aiming to finish developing its training curriculum in the summer, with an eye toward investing money by the end of the year. 

But Anderson, a 1986 Fordham grad and longtime Broadway promoter, initially didn’t even think it was possible for her to be a producer. 

“I told them ‘No, I don’t have a million dollars,’” she said, recalling the first invitation she received to join a production. It was only when she learned that she could raise money from multiple sources in her own community—and help break down barriers to participation—that a new passion was ignited. 

Anderson received her first co-producer credit on A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical as a member of the inaugural class of Theatre Producers of Color, a collective formed in 2020 to bring more diversity to the theater industry.

“It’s not such an anomaly to invest in live theater,” she said. “It’s about giving access and information to people.”

Check out these four key milestones on Anderson’s journey from communications pro to hit-making Broadway producer.

She rubbed elbows with stars as a Fordham journalist

The daughter of a classical singer from Jamaica, Anderson immigrated to the U.S. with her family at a young age. She grew up attending performances and always had a soft spot for the arts, but enrolled at Fordham all in on a journalism career. She majored in communications, interned at the Daily News, and wrote for The Ram—where she landed her first major showbiz assignment: Interview Whoopi Goldberg, then a 30-year-old emerging star making her Broadway debut.   

Goldberg’s performance sought to “bring about togetherness” and “let the audience be a part of the show,” Anderson wrote—a philosophy she has carried into her own work in the theater. 

She fell into Broadway marketing by chance—and helped innovate it

After graduating, Anderson worked in marketing and licensing for brands such as Nickelodeon, MTV, and DC Comics. The seeds of her career change were planted after a routine meeting with clients at a television network in 2004—they mentioned they also happened to be working on a Broadway musical adaptation of The Color Purple.

“They were really trying to find someone who has a connection to the African American community,” Anderson said. She joined the show’s marketing team, and The Color Purple became a hit nominated for 11 Tony awards.

Next, Anderson teamed up with arts entrepreneur Donna Walker-Kuhne, who recruited Anderson to be her marketing partner for a new show—and the two never looked back.

“From there on, we worked on any multicultural Broadway show you can think of,” said Anderson, who has been a marketing director at Walker Communications since 2009. “We became the go-to.”

Anderson helped pioneer marketing techniques that have since become commonplace, such as “Talkback Tuesdays”—post-show conversations with cast members of The Color Purple during  Black History Month. She also helped to create partnerships with the MTA to place show posters in subway cars and organized bus trips to bring in hundreds patrons from cities like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Othello isn’t her first time on a production with Denzel

Anderson worked with Walker Communications as a marketing partner of the 2014 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun. 

The revival boasted a wide range of Fordham talent—actor Denzel Washington; director Kenny Leon, who would go on to serve as Fordham’s Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre that fall; and producer John Johnson, a 2002 Fordham grad. Leon is also directing this production of Othello.

For Washington, Othello represents a full-circle moment, which he reflected on after passing by Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on his way to the first day of rehearsals. In a recent interview with The New York Times, he said, “Wow, 48 years ago I was doing Othello right there at [age]22. And now I’m heading over … to 45th Street to do Othello again. Ain’t life interesting?”

Networking is her superpower

While attending an off-Broadway performance of Hell’s Kitchen at the Public Theater in 2023, Anderson spotted the show’s author and subject, superstar Alicia Keys, directly behind her.   

“I thought, ‘Oh no, I gotta grab her, because she may not come back after intermission,’” Anderson said. She approached Keys and made a connection—opening the door for her to join the producing team once the show moved to Broadway in 2024. 

Anderson’s passion to get involved came not just from the excellence of the material, she said, but also the opportunity to support a project that could inspire a new generation of diverse talent on both sides of the stage. “It’s very important to build community for a show,” she said. 

Last fall, in partnership with Fordham’s MOSAIC multicultural affinity group, Anderson helped organize a Fordham alumni outing to The Wiz, which she also co-produced.

“I think my favorite thing now is the opportunity to diversify Broadway in different aspects,” she said, referring to both the audiences and the talent on and off stage. “That’s what excites me.”

But this year, the Ramily was treated to a double dose of pride when law school grad Howie Roseman—general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles—lifted the trophy following the team’s 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on February 9. 

Roseman has arguably been the team’s most important member off the field in the past decade. His uncanny eye for talent and skill at offseason roster building has led to three Super Bowl appearances and two victories for the Eagles in eight seasons.  

During this year’s playoff run, broadcasters seemed to mention his name nearly as much as the players. 

“The guy is the best in the business,” Fox NFL Sunday analyst Howie Long said during the Super Bowl pregame show. “He is the MVP of this team.”

A Fordham Law Degree Kick-Started His Career

Roseman’s story is marked by a nearly mythic level of drive and determination. He never played organized football, but as a kid he dreamed of becoming a general manager in the NFL. After a league executive suggested gaining expertise on salary cap regulations, Roseman enrolled at Fordham Law and gained an edge over applicants whose experience relied on football knowledge alone.

In a 2014 interview with Bleacher Report, Roseman estimated that between his senior year of high school and his third year of law school, he wrote more than 1,000 letters to NFL teams (one letter to each team, several times a year) in hopes of landing a job. After earning his law degree in 2000, Roseman took an unpaid internship with the Eagles and worked his way up to general manager in just 10 years.

“Fordham Law taught me how to think,” Roseman said in 2019, when he returned to Fordham to deliver the keynote address at the annual Fordham Sports Law Symposium. “Getting a law degree and learning how to think deeply and analytically meant I wasn’t just a college kid who wanted a job in the NFL. … Now I had something to sell.”

The Value of Taking Risks

Roseman’s fearless style led to bold moves that proved crucial to the Eagles’ historic success this year. At the beginning of the season, he brought on rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean and inked a one-year deal with journeyman linebacker Zack Baun. Both had huge interceptions in the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.

“If you don’t take risks,” Roseman said at the 2019 symposium, “you have no chance to be great.”

Most famously, Roseman persuaded star running back Saquon Barkley to leave the New York Giants and come to the Eagles. Barkley went on to set the record for the most combined yards in a single year for the regular season and playoffs.

When a reporter asked about his pride in the team’s accomplishment, Roseman reflected on the persistence and grit that has long been part of his ethos.

“Everyone on this team has stories of determination and persistence, being questioned…and [now] being a world champ.”

A Fordham Super Bowl Legacy

Fordham’s ties to the big game date back to the very first one, when Lombardi led the Green Bay Packers to victory on January 15, 1967, in what later became known as Super Bowl I. He repeated the feat the following year. 

One of Lombardi’s Fordham classmates, Wellington Mara, FCRH ’37, also had a share in two Super Bowl victories, in 1987 and 1991, as longtime co-owner of the New York Giants. Wellington’s son John Mara—a 1979 Fordham Law grad and the Giants’ current president, CEO, and co-owner—also hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice, in 2008 and 2012. 

“When you do it once, sometimes people think it’s a fluke,” Roseman said after Sunday’s victory.  “When you do it twice, they can’t take it away from you.”

Get involved now with these four service outings happening in January and February.

1. Help Provide School Supplies for Neighborhood Children

Monday, January 27, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Lowenstein Center, Room 1004

Join your fellow Rams on the Lincoln Center campus to wrap school supply care packages for neighborhood children. Participants can also include personal notes of affirmation.

2. Create Food Packages for Senior Citizens in Need

Saturday, January 25, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
239 West 49th Street

Fordham’s commitment to the Broadway community goes beyond excellence onstage and behind the scenes. This month, the University is joining Encore Community Services—a Catholic Charity partner just a short subway ride from the Lincoln Center campus—to create food parcels that will support neighborhood seniors in need, many of whom worked in the performing arts. Since 1977, Encore has provided seniors with a range of services to help them live independent and dignified lives in the midtown Times Square and Clinton communities. For this reason, and its focus on initiatives such as “aging gracefully through the arts,” Encore has earned a reputation as “Broadway’s Longest Running Act of Loving Care.”

This event is sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, as part of its For and With Others Volunteer Day, but it’s open to the entire University community.

3. Fight Food Insecurity in the Bronx

Friday, January 31, 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
St. Ignatius Middle School

Wednesday, February 12, 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
McShane Campus Center Entrance

Among the issues affecting New Yorkers daily, food insecurity is one of the most pressing. According to the New York State Department of Health, about one in four New Yorkers report that they do not have sufficient access to food.

Two upcoming events give the Fordham community an opportunity to promote food security in its own backyard. Students and other volunteers will gather to make up to 200 meal packs for community fridges, and conclude the day with a brief Ignatian reflection. The first of these events will happen alongside students at St. Ignatius Middle School in the Bronx. The second will take place at the McShane Campus Center.

Both events are offered through Fordham’s Department of Mission Integration and Ministry, which is rooted in the Jesuit tradition of balancing reflection and action, a practice developed by St. Ignatius Loyola, the 16th-century founder of the Jesuits.

4. Connect with Those Experiencing Houselessness

Sunday, February 23, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Meet in the Lowenstein Center Lobby

Volunteers will join forces with students enrolled in the Philosophical Ethics course at the Lincoln Center campus and visit Xavier Mission, a nonprofit organization in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Together they will share in conversation and serve a hot meal to people experiencing houselessness in New York City. Attendees will take the brief subway trip together, with MetroCards provided.

This experience is presented by Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, which connects Fordham with dozens of local and global partners to provide students with opportunities for experiential learning, research, and civic engagement.

The “pass the phone” challenge—a trend in which members of a group quip about the next person to appear on camera unbeknownst to them—is normally an occasion for light ribbing among friends. Instead, the Fordham grads, all members of the Class of 1983, used the occasion to speak earnestly of their love and support of one another throughout the years.

“We cannot believe how much attention this video received,” said Cara Rothenberg, who filmed the video and posted it on her TikTok account. “My sister and I spent our lives surrounded by this version of positive masculinity and we are better for it. The Fordham boys, and their wives and children, are all family to us.”

The TikTok has amassed more than 650,000 views and generated more than 150,000 comments so far.

“I’m stunned,” said her father, John Rothenberg. “When we heard the number of views, we said, ‘Is that us? Is it because we keep clicking on it?’’’

The friends met when they were all placed in the same residence hall in the fall of their first year at Fordham. Irv Gonzalez, who had just arrived from Florida, counts sharing the first college meal with those new friends as one of the great blessings of his life.

“It’s more than friendship—I was an only child until August of 1979,” he said. “We’ve been there for all the great stuff in each others’ lives. We’ve seen our kids get married. Who would have thought?”

Campus dining has changed.

The renovated Marketplace opened in the McShane Campus Center at Rose Hill on September 3, unveiling brand-new menus, food stations, and a variety of seating options to create a dramatically improved dining experience. The renovation was supported in part by a $5 million grant from New York state.

Here’s a taste of what students are experiencing.

Vegan and Vegetarian Options

The first thing visitors encounter is the vegetarian and vegan station, which sets the tone for the new Marketplace. By using fresh ingredients that have a low impact on the environment, the station is designed to help Fordham lower its carbon footprint.

“Students are really gravitating towards more plant-based options,” said Deming Yaun, Fordham’s dining contract liaison. “It’s a statement of freshness that the station is making that is carried through the whole facility.”

Space for Everyone

Seating arrangements are diverse: booths, tall tables, long tables, and benches are situated throughout, welcoming everyone from single diners looking to work through lunch to teams and other big groups gathering for a communal meal. One dining room can be sectioned off for private gatherings. Altogether, the space can accommodate nearly 800 diners.

Chef’s Table

The chef’s table adds a bit of culinary theater to the dining hall, offering a front-row seat to cooking demonstrations and a chance to order from a seasonal menu featuring special tastings.

Restaurant Row

Diners can choose from the Iron Skillet, featuring made-to-order meals all day; Trattoria Italian Kitchen, with hot-from-the-oven pizza; Ignite grill; and Sweet Nothings, with house-made desserts.

Halal Station

New York City is known for its halal carts, and now Rams can get an authentic version of this street food without leaving campus. “It’s nice that it’s going to be an everyday option,” said Andres Perez, a Fordham senior and a pitcher on the baseball team whose go-to halal meal is chicken and rice with a salad. The Marketplace also offers kosher meals upon request.

Sustainable Eating

Several meals in the Marketplace are certified climate-friendly by the World Resources Institute. They’re marked with a badge so students can easily identify items that have a low environmental impact.

“People were like, ‘You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Relax. The internet needs to be free,’” said the 1994 Fordham Law School grad.

But the article changed the trajectory of Citron’s career. Her groundbreaking scholarship and advocacy on issues involving intimate privacy and online abuse are recognized internationally for their vital importance to an evolving understanding of ethics in the digital age. She earned a MacArthur Fellowship (aka “genius grant”) five years ago, and today she’s a distinguished professor of law at the University of Virginia.

“I was accused of wanting to kill free speech,” Citron said. “But I stuck to my guns. This is important.”

In a world where lawmaking lags behind the rapidly accelerating speed of technology, Citron is aiming to close that gap. She focuses on finding legal solutions to a wide array of online abuses, from cyberstalking and harassment to harmful deepfakes—digitally manipulated videos and images that are becoming increasingly indiscernible from reality. Threats like these disproportionately affect women and minorities, she said, making these issues “the civil rights cause of our time.”  

“That’s the worst—the everyday person who’s targeted. They shut down their LinkedIn, Facebook, X accounts; they literally just go offline,” she said. “When you chase a woman offline, she cannot participate [in society].” 

Since 2013, Citron has been vice president of the nonprofit Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. She has published two acclaimed books, including The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age (2022), and spent more than a decade working with law enforcement, legislators, and large tech companies to create reforms that give recourse to people who are targeted online.

Most recently, Citron partnered with U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss to draft a bill that would reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—a law that protects platforms from liability for harmful or false content they host. The proposal includes stricter regulations against digital forgeries, cyber stalking, and intimate privacy violations.

For Citron, the through line across her career is one that was strengthened during her time at Fordham, both as a student and a professor of the law. 

“The work that I do is on behalf of the vulnerable,” she said. “That is so consistent with the Fordham mission.”

A decade ago, Fordham officially became a “changemaker campus.” But the changemaking impulse has been at the heart of a Fordham education for generations. Read more about other Fordham changemakers.

RELATED STORY: How Dr. Suzanne Lagarde Is Expanding Access to Quality Health Care

RELATED STORY: Anthony Martinez Is Bringing Bronxites to the River

Amelia Medved, a 2023 Fordham graduate, analyzed how the dead have become part of the landscape of the city in “A Breathing Place: Sanctified Burial Sites in New York City Public Space,” a research project she conducted through a Duffy Fellowship from Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture. 

Medved, a studio assistant at the landscape architecture firm SCAPE, says that honoring the collective memory of the deceased is a healthy expression of urban life—one that can “enliven our connection to place and engage the dynamic communities that inhabit New York City today.”

Hart Island 

Hart Island, located at the western end of Long Island Sound in the Bronx, has a long and morbidly fascinating history as New York City’s public cemetery, with mass graves stretching back to the Civil War. Described by Medved as a “remote, windy, indeterminate landscape far from the beating heart of the city,” the island had been controlled for many years by the city’s Department of Correction, which used prison labor to bury more than 1 million unclaimed and unidentified New Yorkers. 

The maintenance of the island came under scrutiny in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy unearthed some remains. In July of 2015, the grave sites became accessible to the families of those buried on the island, and in 2019, control of the island was transferred to the New York City Department of Parks.

Hart Island is now open to the public through small guided tours requiring lottery registration. The Hart Island Project, a public charity incorporated in 2011, has worked to destigmatize the burial ground and create an online resource to help families find the locations of their buried loved ones.   

The Enslaved African and Kingsbridge Burial Grounds, Van Cortlandt Park

Consecrated in 2021, this section of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx was nothing more than a neighborhood ghost story until a chance encounter by Kingsbridge resident Nick Dembowski. After noticing a few broken headstones against a fence, Dembowski went to the Kingsbridge Historical Society. There he learned that the fenced-off area was once home to an 18th-century burial ground, particularly for people enslaved at the estate. Their bones were discovered in the late 1870s, when the New York Northern Railroad Company broke ground in the area. 

Following Dembowski’s efforts, the Enslaved People Project was born—launched by the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Van Cortlandt House Museum, and Kingsbridge Historical society to help shed light on the history of the burial grounds.

Medved said this site offers visitors “the chance to encounter the people who walked through the trees or stood beside the lake centuries ago.” 

Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Fort Greene Park

Just a few blocks from Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn, Fort Greene Park is a 30-acre public space, filled with history dating back to the Revolutionary War. In the center sits the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, a war memorial dedicated to more than 11,500 American prisoners of war. Many of these prisoners, who died on British prison ships in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, were thrown into the bay or buried in shallow graves on the shoreline.

Their remains were left there until the 19th century, when they were collected after funding was secured for a public monument. They were briefly interred in a public tomb before being moved permanently to the newly constructed Fort Greene Park in 1873. The monument that stands today, with its massive doric column and granite stairway, was completed in 1908.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the monument, according to Medved, is the way it “convenes the living and dead in intimate proximity to the unawareness of most visitors.”

The 9/11 Memorial

Located where the Twin Towers once stood, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum honors the lives lost at the World Trade Center during the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The site features two reflecting pools bordered by bronze parapets engraved with the names of 2,983 people—2,977 who were killed on 9/11, and six killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. 

The most striking part of the memorial, according to Medved, is the sound—the white noise generated by running water  creates a pocket of “overwhelming silence” in an area bustling with foot traffic. 

The contemplative nature of the space has led to myriad improvised displays, including “missing” posters, flowers, American flags, rosaries, and even unauthorized etchings of additional names on the monument’s surface. 

Medved says that these contributions from visitors are evidence of a vital, dynamic “public grieving process.” 

RELATED STORY: How a Passion for the Environment and Visual Arts Led to a Career in Landscape Architecture

Macht sat down with Fordham Magazine to discuss the bawdy production and his whirlwind experience as the show transformed from little-known downtown play to Broadway smash hit.

How did you get involved with the production?

I literally just auditioned. It wasn’t supposed to be this big show. It was supposed to be six weeks off-Broadway, so it was a pretty low-key audition. I was like, “Well, that went fine,” and I didn’t expect to hear about it ever again. Then I lucked out and I got it.

I had actually been in a TV show called At Home with Amy Sedaris, and Cole Escola was in the same episode, but we never met each other. I remember watching it andCole would pop up, and I’d be like, “That person’s funny. If only I could be that funny.” And I still feel that way, because they’re the funniest person that I’ve ever seen. So it is a full-circle thing to be working with them on this.

Can you describe your role in the show and how you approached it?

My character is Mary’s husband’s assistant. Cole plays Mary Todd Lincoln, so you can figure out who Mary’s husband is. I am the assistant, sort of his bag boy. 

How I approach the role is to take it as truly seriously as possible. So, the play is  pure farce. But to allow Cole and the others to be the funniest, I have to pretend I’m in an HBO miniseries about Lincoln, and not this übersilly play. That’s the approach—like, this guy’s life is on the line.

The subject matter is fairly edgy.

What’s actually so fun about the show is, while it is edgy—we’re making fun of the president, we’re making fun of these revered political figures from American history—the jokes are actually like Three Stooges jokes. So it’s both very subversive but also strangely comforting because it’s a style of comedy that is so ingrained in all of us just from watching any sitcom ever.

Your show has become a bit of a phenomenon. Have you had a favorite moment?

The one that’s the most amazing is, we had only been open off-Broadway for a week, and Steven Spielberg, Sally Field, and Tony Kushner all came as a little trio. That was truly surreal. Even Cole was starstruck, and we were all just like, “This is so amazing.” And I was just thinking to myself, imagining Sally Field, Tony Kushner, and Steven Spielberg—I guess they still have an active group text from filming the movie Lincoln—and they’re like, “Should we go see this silly show?” And they all said yes. That’s so cute to me. 

Any other favorite people you’ve met backstage?

Melissa McCarthy came and was so unbelievably effusive in her praise. She did a classic Melissa McCarthy thing and she literally knelt down before Cole and bowed to them. It was just so funny and you could just tell how much [McCarthy] was touched by it.

Earlier this year, Frank DiLella talked about the multigenerational Fordham posse that exists on Broadway. What has your experience been like as one of the newest members?

I do feel the Fordham presence on Broadway, and the New York theater scene at large. I’m in a fantasy football league with [2017 Fordham grad] Celina Lam, [an associate company manager with Wagner Johnson Productions, co-led by 2002 Fordham grad John Johnson] and I walk by her show The Roommate every night to go home, so I see her all the time. It’s amazing how much stuff Fordham people are producing and acting in and writing. Most of my collaborator friends who I do workshops and things with are still people I met at Fordham. It makes me very proud.

You’ve gone on to grad school, worked in film and TV. Do you feel like your Fordham experience laid a path for the things you’ve done since?

I learned how to act at Fordham. I always had a natural liking of acting, but I had no idea really what I was doing until I came to Fordham. What Fordham was so good at is there’s opportunities to act in front of people constantly. If you don’t get cast on the main stage, you do the studio shows, or you are in class. You just get the reps in. Like an athlete, you just get better by doing it. That’s what allows you to jump in quickly when you get an audition, or when you get a part. That’s the gift of going to a theater school like Fordham.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Franco Giacomarra, FCLC ’19.

The warm, sun-soaked day began early for attendees who took part in the 13th Annual 5K Ram Run, a three-lap race around campus. By 11 a.m., grads and families began to pack the tents on Edwards Parade for pregame food and drinks. Face painters and caricature artists worked the kid-friendly family tent, and as game time approached, the Fordham cheerleaders and pep band helped lead fans to Moglia Stadium. On the field, despite a strong effort, the football Rams lost to Stony Brook 27-21, breaking a two-year streak of dramatic, come-from-behind victories at Homecoming. 

This year featured a strong turnout from Lincoln Center students, including many who helped kick off the weekend at the President’s Ball on Friday evening.  The annual formal dance, held under the Homecoming tent, drew more than 1,500 students. Meanwhile, nearly 500 recent grads gathered for dinner, dancing, and cocktails on the annual young alumni yacht cruise around lower Manhattan.

Save the date: Homecoming 2025 will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18, when the Rams take on the Dartmouth College Big Green at Rose Hill.

Pascrell enjoyed a long life in public service that included a postcollege stint in the military, more than a decade as a high school history teacher, and six years as mayor of Paterson, New Jersey. He was nearing the end of his 14th term in the House of Representatives.

“As our United States Representative, Bill fought to his last breath to return to the job he cherished and to the people he loved,” his family wrote in a statement announcing his death. “Bill lived his entire life in Paterson and had an unwavering love for the city he grew up in and served.”

‘An Opportunity to Help My Community’

A grandson of Italian immigrants, Pascrell was born in Paterson on January 25, 1937. He graduated from St. John the Baptist High School, where he was elected student council president, and enrolled at Fordham in the mid-1950s. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1959 and a master’s in philosophy in 1961.

Pascrell talked openly about his Fordham education and how he aimed to put it to use in the service of others.

“My degree from Fordham gave me an opportunity to help my community and make it better, and that is the way I looked at it,” Pascrell said in a 2023 interview with The Fordham Ram.

For him, plain speaking wasn’t just a way to communicate—it was essential to getting things done. And it was tied to his Fordham education and Catholic faith.

“Those values include saying it like it is,” he told The Ram. “Don’t camouflage what you’re trying to get across. Say it; don’t be afraid. We say at Mass many times—in fact, we sing it, ‘Be Not Afraid.’ You go to Fordham, you’re not afraid. It seems that everyone at Fordham knows how to speak their mind.”

A Fordham Sports Superfan

Pascrell was also a passionate supporter of Fordham athletics, his son Glenn Pascrell, FCRH ’90, said in a eulogy during a funeral Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson on August 28.

“He had a great sense of loyalty to institutions, and one of them was Fordham University,” he said. “I will always cherish going to Fordham games with my dad in the Bronx.”

A basketball and football season ticket holder for more than 30 years, Pascrell was a fixture in the stands at Rose Hill and frequently traveled to away games when his Capitol Hill schedule allowed. He didn’t play for the Rams, but he had been an all-state baseball player in high school and at one point tried out for the Philadelphia Phillies.

For many years, he served as a coach during the annual congressional baseball game. His uniform of choice at those events? The maroon and white of the Fordham Rams.

“Bill was an exceptionally devoted alumnus and the biggest Fordham basketball fan. Whenever we needed him, he was always there for us,” said Fordham President Tania Tetlow. “We will certainly miss Bill’s impact on Fordham and the communities he served. Our prayers are with [his wife] Elsie and the entire Pascrell family.”

A ‘Beloved Bridge Builder’ Who Fought ‘Relentlessly’ for His Constituents

After grad school at Fordham, Pascrell served in the Army and the Army Reserve for much of the 1960s. He received an honorable discharge in 1967 and spent 12 years as a public high school teacher and college professor in New Jersey before entering local politics in Paterson.

He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1988 and was twice elected mayor of Paterson, where he served from 1990 to 1996, when he ran for Congress.

In Congress, Pascrell served on the influential House Ways and Means Committee and focused on issues such as tax reform, environmental protection, and funding for public safety and education.

His signature achievements include helping to establish programs like the Fire Grants and Safety Act that directly fund first responders across the country. He also played a key role in establishing the Paterson Great Falls as a national historical park.

Frequently described in the media as “brash,” “blunt,” and “feisty,” Pascrell was a passionate advocate for issues that affected everyday community members in New Jersey’s diverse 9th congressional district.

“Yeah, I live in Paterson,” Pascrell was known to respond when others questioned his lifelong residency in his hometown, the country’s first planned industrial city. “You want to make something of it?”

Pascrell was also regarded as an affable presence noted for his ability to connect with people from all walks of life. In a statement, President Joe Biden praised Pascrell as a “beloved bridge builder” and a “champion for working-class people” who “fought relentlessly to ensure their voices and needs were at the center of policymaking.”

In his eulogy for his father, Glenn Pascrell quoted an oft-repeated line that underscores the philosophy by which his father lived.

“My dad held many public titles. When he spoke in front of a group, he always opened with the following line: ‘Titles come and go. In the end they don’t matter,’” he said. ‘What matters is how we treat each other.’”

Pascrell is survived by his wife, Elsie Marie (Botto) Pascrell; his three sons, William J. Pascrell III, and twins Glenn and David, both 1990 graduates of Fordham College at Rose Hill; two sisters; and six grandchildren.