That’s the topic of a recent book by Richard Teverson, Ph.D., assistant professor of art history, who puts a spotlight on something that tends to be overlooked in histories of conquering powers: the hopes and dreams of the conquered.

Studying such “past futures” is growing more popular in the humanities and social sciences, said Teverson, author of Visions of the Future in Roman Frontier Kingdoms 100 BCE–100 CE, published in September by Routledge. “You can’t get a full picture of a decision that someone makes in the past,” he said, “unless you have a sense of what they thought could happen.”

Teverson gained this sense by examining public art created during the empire’s expansion. He got the idea for the book from his students—when they wrote in a midterm exam about the imagined futures reflected in the Arch of Constantine in Rome, he decided to apply this idea at the former empire’s edge and beyond it, to structures created by people who later came under Roman rule.

Nations or groups being taken over deserve to have their aspirations understood rather than being told to simply “get on board” with their new ruler’s vision, he said. 

“Even people who you might think are on the losing side of history have a future that they’re envisaging and, especially if it’s no longer feasible in some way, are engaged in a really complicated idea about how to fit their aspirations to reality,” he said.

Protecting Rights Through Art

In 14 BCE, as Alpine tribes were falling to Roman conquest, the local ruler Cottius made a deal with the Romans to absorb his kingdom into the empire and remain as magistrate.

To proclaim the new order, he commissioned an archway that, Teverson argues, was designed with the future in mind: As opposed to the Romans’ usual depictions of peacemaking, which might show a vanquished barbarian kissing the hand of a Roman general, the arch contains a relief of Cottius shaking hands with the Roman emperor Augustus.

It also shows tribes receiving citizenship tablets—a way of codifying certain rights and privileges in case they were later challenged, Teverson argues. “This seems, to me, pretty direct in its aspirations and its concern for documenting a ritual of political transfer,” he said.

‘A Divinely Ordained Future’

Another example comes from Kommagene, in modern-day Turkey, a kingdom conquered by Rome in 17 CE. Before that, as wars involving Rome and other powers clouded the kingdom’s future, its ruler, Antiochos I, built a hilltop complex containing icons and images meant to convey a glorious destiny for the kingdom.

That was also his goal, Teverson argues, when the king took the unusual step of including an engraving of his own horoscope so that worshippers would compare it with the night sky and be reminded, “‘Oh, we are working in a kingdom that has a divinely ordained future,’” he said.

Crafting ‘the Futures They Need to Survive’

Through this and other stories of artistic expression, Teverson illustrates how people “craft the futures they need to survive” in the face of uncertainty about what’s coming. It’s an idea that resonates from ancient Rome to today’s marginalized communities who may have a picture of their own future in mind—but face strong headwinds in making it a reality, he said. 

An example might be city planners envisioning a future for a neighborhood—like Harlem, where Teverson lives—without consulting with the residents, he said. “If you want to understand the problems of Harlem, you need to, in some ways, ask yourself, well, what does Harlem think its future is going to be?” 

While writing the book, he was thinking of the looming problem of climate change and the questions that future generations might ask about the future we’re trying to shape today.

“Maybe even in my daughter’s lifetime,” he said, “they’re going to look back and [say], what were you planning in 2024?”

It’s been called a venerable throwback, a hidden gem, a cathedral of college sports. Since its inaugural game in January 1925, ‘Rose Thrill’ has always been much more than a gym.

They don’t make them like they used to, you might say, and you’d be right. Consider Rose Hill Gym’s exterior walls. The builder’s “local gray stone” is likely a mix of Fordham gneiss and Manhattan schist—the ancient, gritty bedrock upon which much of New York City is built. Could there be a more symbolically apt building material for a Fordham icon?

Through the decades, the gym has been the site of countless athletic contests. It’s where students push themselves to excel—amid the roar of the crowd or just the echoey squeak of sneakers on hardwood. And it’s where generations have gathered for momentous events, from Fordham presidents’ welcome addresses (where many students and families first fall in love with the University) to unforgettable concerts, baccalaureate Masses, and award ceremonies.

As the gym turns 100, here’s a look at some of the many moments and people whose energy, camaraderie, grit, and grace have brought the building to life since 1925.

The strength of the Fordham athlete finds root in spirited competition, a strong will to win, forbearance in defeat, and tempered joy in victory.

John Francis “Jack” Coffey

Widely considered the father of Fordham sports, Jack Coffey, a 1910 grad, served as the graduate manager of athletics and baseball coach for nearly 35 years, overseeing the Rams’ rise to national renown, particularly in football.

When Coffey retired in 1958, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist and fellow Fordham grad Arthur Daley wrote that Coffey always “seemed as much a part of the Fordham landscape as the university’s gymnasium.” He called Coffey “the soul of erudition,” not just a coach and administrator but “a friend, confidant, and advisor of … generations of athletes.”

Test Your Rose Hill Gym IQ

Rose Hill Gym has been the beloved stomping grounds of many a Ram. Do you know it well enough to knock out this quiz as quickly as the Fordham Flash* might have?

Check out the answers at the bottom of this story.

* Who’s the Fordham Flash? None other than Frankie Frisch, Class of 1920. Arguably the Fordham sports GOAT, he excelled in baseball, track, football, and basketball before going on to a Hall of Fame pro baseball career.

1. The gym was considered so big for its time that Rams called it …

• The Meadow
• The Prairie
• The Plains

2. When it opened, the gym boasted …

• Equipment for weightlifting
• Three 400-square-foot boxing rings in the basement
• A swimming pool, with cutting-edge machinery for filtering and purifying water

3. Which Fordham men’s basketball star was the latest to have his number retired and jersey hoisted to the gym’s rafters?

• Ken Charles
• Ed Conlin
• Charlie Yelverton

4. What did Cindy Vojtech do for a Rose Hill Gym encore after her stellar volleyball career?

• Sang the national anthem
• Joined the WFUV broadcast team
• Delivered a valedictory address

5. Which women’s basketball star’s buzzer-beater against Rhode Island inspired a SportsCenter anchor to kick off the night’s highlights from the “Boogie Down Bronx”?

• Anna DeWolfe
• Mobolaji Akiode
• Abigail Corning

Highlights in the History of the Rose Hill Gym

1925 Brought a Flurry to Fordham

Fordham was in the midst of “a million dollar year” when the Rose Hill Gym opened in 1925, declared the Maroon yearbook staff. In addition to the gym, they cited a new campus bookstore and seismic lab along with a new library that was halfway to completion.

But it was the gym that dominated the team’s attention: “The sight of its huge, though artistically proportioned bulk is quite enough to instill in every Fordhamite a full-grown superiority complex.”

Fordham leaders clearly had great confidence in the gym’s architect, Emile G. Perrot, who also designed what would become Duane Library. “Architecture,” Perrot once said, “is the incarnation in stone of the thought and life of the civilization it represents.”

Keepsakes Lie Behind the Cornerstone

When the gym’s cornerstone was laid on a Sunday afternoon in early November 1923, a copper box of treasures from those times was buried alongside it. A list in the Walsh Library archives documents the contents.

Some items speak to Fordham’s Catholic and Jesuit ties, among them a medal of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. There are U.S. stamps, coins, and a flag bearing 48 stars along with copies of New York newspapers from the day.

There is no mistaking the school pride of the collection’s curators. Included are the Fordham catalog, University seal and colors, a copy of The Fordham Ram, and photos of campus buildings and grounds.

Finally, recognizing the gym’s calling as a home for sports and community, the copper box boasts Fordham athletics schedules, popular University songs, and the athletic association’s constitution.

A treasure trove, indeed—one now more than a century old.

1925: The new gym opens, hosting its first basketball game on January 16. The Rams beat Boston College 46-16 in a contest refereed by former four-sport star Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash, then a second baseman for the New York Giants.

Coach Ed Kelleher’s “Wonder Fives” go on to win 85 games and lose only nine between 1924 and 1929, christening the gym in spectacular fashion.

1927: A record 6,000 fans turn out to see Fordham beat City College of New York on January 22, a crowd well beyond the gym’s current 3,200-seat capacity.

1936: Foul weather forces the football Rams to practice in the gym. The team’s nationally renowned line, the Seven Blocks of Granite, includes Fordham senior and future pro football icon Vince Lombardi.

c. 1940: Trainer Jake Weber operates out of the gym’s basement. A fixture at Fordham for more than three decades until 1942, he also trains U.S. Olympic teams and is known for his “magic elixirs” and “baking machines” used to soothe student-athletes’ sore muscles.

1943: Bob Mullens earns All-America honors and leads the Rams to their first appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. He goes on to play for the New York Knicks in their inaugural season (1946–47), and in 2019, Fordham retires his No. 7.

1953: In his third season as head coach, Johnny Bach, a 1948 grad, leads the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament berth. He goes on to become Fordham’s all-time winningest coach, compiling a 264-192 record in 18 seasons. He departs Fordham in 1968 and later joins the NBA. As an assistant coach, Bach helps lead the Chicago Bulls to three straight titles in the early 1990s and leaves an indelible mark on Michael Jordan, who calls him “truly one of the greatest basketball minds of all time.”

1964: Women’s basketball begins as a club sport after Barbara Hartnett Hall and several of her classmates pitch the idea. “We went to talk to the athletic director … and [he was]surprisingly open to it,” Hall, a four-year captain, later recalls.

1965: The gym is the scene of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s final high school game. Then known as Lew Alcindor, he leads Power Memorial to victory in the New York Catholic High School Athletic Association Championship on March 7.

Video: Watch highlights of the NBA legend’s standout performance in a packed Rose Hill Gym.

1966: The Beach Boys bring their surf rock to the Bronx on March 18, at the height of their popularity. The Lovin’ Spoonful is also on the bill.

On December 3, Simon and Garfunkel perform the first of their two concerts at the Rose Hill Gym, taking the stage for Winter Weekend. The following year, they return on October 13 to play Homecoming.

RELATED STORY: Rockin’ Rose Hill: A Look Back at Campus Concerts Since the ’60s

1967: Men’s basketball beats Iona on February 25 to launch a school-record 25-game winning streak in the gym. The home streak lasts until December 17, 1969.

The Supremes, featuring Diana Ross, perform in the gym on March 11. Future stars Gladys Knight & the Pips open the show.

1970: Women’s basketball debuts as a varsity sport, beating NYU in its first game.

“We started winning games we weren’t supposed to win, and you couldn’t get in the Rose Hill Gym. It was … a real happening. When that team played, it was New York City’s team.”

Frank McLaughlin, FCRH ’69, former longtime athletics director, on the magical 26-3 season of the 1970–1971 men’s basketball team. He was an assistant to head coach Digger Phelps that year, when the Rams rose to No. 9 in the national rankings.

1971: With gritty team play, men’s basketball captures the hearts of New Yorkers, packing the gym and selling out multiple games at Madison Square Garden on the way to a 26-3 record and a top 10 national ranking. The magical season ends with a loss to Villanova in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional Semifinals.

RELATED STORY: ‘The Darlings of New York’: An Oral History of the 1970–1971 Fordham Men’s Basketball Team

1974: Women’s volleyball posts a 4-3 record in its first season.

1975: Eight years after his last performance in the Rose Hill Gym, singer-songwriter Paul Simon returns to tape a skit for the second-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. In the skit, which airs on October 18, he goes one-on-one with basketball great Connie Hawkins. Despite a 1-foot-4-inch height disadvantage, Simon pulls off the upset—and some deadpan comedy. “First of all, when my outside shot is on, it’s really on,” he says in a mock postgame interview with broadcaster Marv Albert.

1983: Men’s basketball upsets top-seeded Iona to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

1984: The Ramones play their hits in the gym on April 27. But basketball is also on the mind of NYC’s seminal punk band, according to concert committee chair Joe Cerra, then a Fordham senior. “[We] had to keep giving Joey Ramone updates on the Knicks game,” he recalled in a 2013 interview with this magazine.

1990: Jean Prioleau hits a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lead Fordham to a 69-68 win over Seton Hall on November 29, spoiling Fordham grad P.J. Carlesimo’s return to Rose Hill as Seton Hall’s head coach.

Video: “Bang!” Fordham grad and Hall of Fame basketball broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, makes the call as Prioleau hits the game-winning shot. Fans rush onto the Rose Hill Gym floor to join the celebration as Prioleau is carried off the court.

1991: Men’s basketball wins the first of two straight Patriot League titles.

1992: Women’s basketball claims its first Patriot League title, a feat the Rams would repeat in 1994.

2000: Volleyball star Cindy Vojtech becomes the first (and, to this date, only) Ram to earn three straight Academic All-America honors, picking up the awards in two sports. Following her senior volleyball season, she joined the women’s crew and helped lead them to a second-place finish at the Dad Vail Regatta in 2000.

She went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics and is currently a principal economist with the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Fordham President’s Council, helping to provide scholarship support to Fordham students.

2001: Fat Joe and Ashanti use the Rose Hill Gym in their “That’s Luv” music video.

2004: Fordham retires the No. 11 jersey of Ed Conlin, a standout player for the Rams who went on to a 10-year NBA career after graduating in 1955. “He played with a passion,” Conlin’s former Fordham coach, Johnny Bach, says at the ceremony. “We need people like Ed Conlin, people who love the game and who love Fordham.” He remains the men’s team’s all-time leading scorer (1,886) and rebounder (1,930).

2010: Fordham retires Anne Gregory O’Connell’s No. 55. A 1980 grad, she led the Rams to four consecutive postseason appearances and remains Fordham’s all-time leading scorer (2,548) and rebounder (1,999).

2012: Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Stephen Colbert meet in the gym on September 14 for “The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life.” The discussion, moderated by bestselling author James Martin, S.J., draws a crowd of more than 3,000 “cheering, stomping, chanting students,” The New York Times reports, calling it “the most successful Roman Catholic youth evangelization event since Pope John Paul II last appeared at World Youth Day” in 2000.

2014: Women’s basketball captures its first Atlantic 10 title and holds an NCAA Tournament selection show watch party in the gym. They would go on to win the title again in 2019.

2021: The rapper A$AP Ferg (now known as Ferg) headlines the November 4 “Late Night on the Hill” event that kicks off the 2021–2022 basketball season.

2022: Fordham hosts—and on November 22, the men’s basketball team wins—the first Konchalski Classic, an annual basketball tournament to honor the life and legacy of 1968 Fordham grad Tom Konchalski, one of the most trusted basketball scouts in the country. His four-decade career included assessments of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James as high schoolers.

In February 2021, one day after Konchalski’s death at the age of 74, New York Knicks broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, told viewers that while Konchalski “may not have been what’s called a household name, in basketball homes, he was legendary.”

“Tom was the most influential, the most respected, and the most loved high school basketball scout in the country,” Breen said. “He helped thousands of young men, thousands of high school basketball players, achieve their dreams of playing college basketball and beyond. And every single day, he did it with kindness and humility.”

On November 29, the gym floor is designated the Frank McLaughlin Family Court—a tribute to Frank McLaughlin, the 1969 grad and former basketball star who became a devoted coach and longtime athletic director.

2023: After raucous home crowds seem to will the men’s basketball team to a pair of impressive victories in January, head coach Keith Urgo coins a new nickname for the historic gym when he opens a press conference with five words: “How about Rose Thrill, man!”

RELATED STORY: The Rise of ‘Rose Thrill’: Fans Fuel Fordham Basketball Resurgence

2024: In September, the University unveils a new court surface featuring a prominent Fordham script wordmark set over the silhouette of a large Ram head.

Did we miss your favorite Rose Hill Gym moments?

Share your own Rose Hill Gym story on the Fordham athletics website celebrating the gym’s 100th anniversary.

Answers to the ‘Test Your Rose Hill Gym IQ’ Quiz

1. The Prairie 2. A swimming pool 3. Fordham retired Charlie Yelverton’s No. 34 in 2023. 4. Cindy Vojtech was the valedictorian of the Gabelli School of Business Class of 2000. 5. Anna DeWolfe hit the game-winner against Rhode Island on February 22, 2023.

VIDEO: Watch DeWolfe’s game-winning shot.

Poets&Quants calculates its scores based on a weighted average of rankings from five major sources: U.S. News & World Report, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, LinkedIn, and The Princeton Review. These rankings take into account factors such as long-term career outcomes, student experience, admission statistics, starting compensation for graduates, campus environment, and professor quality.

STEM-Designated Fordham MBA Program Offers Tech Skills

The full-time MBA program is STEM-designated, helping students to develop the technical and analytical skills they’ll need to succeed in an increasingly tech-dominated economy. The program features a “Gabelli Launch Month,” a month-long pre-semester initiative where incoming students participate in workshops, networking events, and projects designed to prepare them for the academic and professional challenges ahead.

“Over the past year, we’ve focused on enhancing key aspects of the program, such as experiential learning opportunities, career outcomes, and global exposure,” said Alex Markle, the full-time MBA program’s director. “I’m proud of this momentum and excited to see how we continue to build on this success.”

Both Gabelli School MBA programs offer a Jesuit business education in the heart of New York City. Admissions are selective, with the full-time MBA enrolling approximately 60 students each year, and the EMBA enrolling cohorts of approximately 30. This small cohort size allows for more personalized attention and a closer-knit student community, faculty said. 

A Focus on Values

Francis Petit, the EMBA program’s director, says the program’s success is a product of Fordham’s Jesuit values. 

“Our goal has always been, as the Jesuit EMBA Program of New York, to offer a cura personalis approach to our students that is unique, personalized, and transformative,” said Petit. “We are very proud of our dynamic EMBA students and alumni, along with our committed faculty and staff.”

Since 1924, Jesuits and their lay counterparts have been measuring earthquakes in this one-story Gothic structure, which currently stands next to Edwards Parade on the Rose Hill campus. Its equipment detects temblors around the world, including the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that rattled the area in April.

The observatory, which consists of an unassuming above-ground structure and a concrete vault 28 feet underground where the seismic instruments reside, is easy to miss. But it has played an important role in the advancement of seismology and physics over the years.

Stephen Holler, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s physics department, who maintains the station, said it’s important to “keep an eye” on the planet and its rumblings.

“We’re always learning things about the Earth, and especially in the kind of high-density area that we’re in, it’s useful to monitor for earthquakes [and other tremors],” he said. “Maybe, in the event that something is happening or changing, we can potentially prepare for it.”

In the years that it has been operational, the station has recorded many earthquakes, including an 8.6 magnitude quake that struck Alaska in 1946 and a 7.7 magnitude quake that struck Taiwan in 1999. Holler is often called on by the media to discuss earthquakes when they strike the area.

Digging Deep

Fordham first got involved in seismology in 1910—along with nine other Jesuit colleges—through the Seismological Society of America, which had a Jesuit priest as one of its founding members. That year, a seismograph was installed in the basement of Cunniffe Hall. In 1920, Joseph J. Lynch, S.J., a physics instructor, took over the station. 

At the time, seismographs worked by utilizing a suspended mass—such as a weight—that remained relatively stationary, while the base of the instrument, which was fixed to the ground, moved during an earthquake. A recording of the relative motion between the mass and the base was recorded, providing a measurement of the ground shaking.

But the instruments worked best when isolated and in close contact with the bedrock. So in 1922, the University used stone acquired from a recent subway excavation to construct a building with underground space where they could operate with minimal disruption. It was originally built in the spot where Faber Hall now stands.

A Plaque From the Pope

Funding for the construction was provided by William Spain, whose son William, a physics student at Fordham, died that year. It was formally blessed by Bishop John Collins, S.J., Fordham’s 13th president, in a ceremony on Oct. 24, 1924. To honor the occasion, Pope Pius XI sent a bronze plaque with an image of St. Emidio, the divine protector against earthquakes, that is still embedded in the building’s exterior door.

In Pop Culture

Almost immediately after it opened, it became an object of fascination. A working model of the station was displayed at the 1939/1940 World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens, and Fordham displayed an operational seismograph at the 1964/1965 World’s Fair as well. 

Father Lynch was routinely one of the first to report major seismic events around the world to media outlets. In April 1946, Life Magazine stated that the “Jesuit seismologist is America’s best-known interpreter of things that shake the earth, including milk trains, quakes, seismic waves.” 

The station even became a part of pop culture. In a 1974 episode of the television show M*A*S*H. (starring Alan Alda, FCRH ’56), Colonel Henry Blake joked that he snores so loudly that he “even got a fan letter once from the seismograph people at Fordham.”

A Revival

In 1970, Father Lynch published a reflection titled Watching Our Trembling Earth for 50 Years (Fordham University Press), which recounted the ways he and fellow Jesuits worked together to perfect the science of seismology. Among other anecdotes, he noted how one night in 1929, in the course of calibrating the station’s clock with one at the Naval Observatory in Arlington, Virginia, he stumbled on bootleggers who were bottling whiskey on campus. 

For several years after Father Lynch’s death in 1987, the station was either dormant or tended to by students who pursued seismology as a hobby. 

In 1996, physics professor Ben Crooker took over supervision of the student club that had been using the equipment. By then, the field had changed a lot with the advent of the internet and increased computer power. 

In 2001, thanks to a donation from an unidentified alumnus, Fordham was able to purchase a Guralp DM24 CMG3T machine, which combines the functions of a seismometer and digitizer. The University officially rejoined the international seismology community.

The Station Today

Today, measuring an earthquake now is akin to conducting a CT scan on the planet, with multiple stations—including Fordham’s—reporting observations from around the country to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) data repository in Boulder, Colorado. 

“Fordham’s station is like one cell in a giant camera,” Crooker told Fordham News in 2007, “used to build a seismic map of the Earth.”

The Guralp, which looks like a coffee can with wires poking out of it, sits on a concrete pedestal beneath a plexiglass box and a blanket, which keeps it dust free and at a constant temperature. The data it collects is sent to a computer in Freeman Hall, which then relays it to USGS.

The rest of the vault is occupied by dormant equipment once used by Lynch and his successors. Every year on the day before commencement, Holler opens up the station to graduating physics students who marvel at the antiquated instruments. 

“They’re kind of museum pieces, but they’re fantastic for quizzing the students on their physics fundamentals,” he said.

Attendees included music students, music and art faculty members, donors who supported the project, Fordham President Tania Tetlow, and Father Grimes himself, as well as members of his family. (See related story about the fundraising effort.) They gathered at the Lincoln Center campus outside the Robert R. Grimes, S.J. Music Studios, which opened this fall, providing students with five soundproof rooms designed to enhance their music practice.

Related story: Student musicians began the academic year on a high note when the music studios opened. (With video)

Speakers took turns thanking donors and lauding Father Grimes, a former Fordham music professor and a singer himself.

“You have been always a supporter of the arts here, whether that meant the [Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program], the theater program, visual arts, and of course the music program,” said Daniel Ott, D.M.A., associate professor of music and chair of the Department of Art History and Music.

Students Finding Their Musical Voice

The gathering took place in the Lipani Gallery, part of a newly renovated visual arts complex adjacent to the five new music practice rooms. In her remarks, Tetlow spoke of “how profoundly Jesuit music is” because of its mix of intellect and passion.

“Know, for all of you who gave to this project, that you are creating a space where every day, Fordham students … are going to literally find their voice and discover what they have to say to the world, and that will be true for the rest of their lives, so thank you so much.”

Father Grimes thanked the donors as well, and said he was “so happy for the students to have something that is so important to any music program.”

In an interview before the event, he said “it’s quite an honor” to be the namesake for the new music suite. “Fordham College Lincoln Center is very, very close to my heart,” he said. “I loved my time there. And so if I’ve left a little of my sense there, I’m very happy for that.”

‘We Need Artists’

The event was emceed by Maco Dacanay, a junior and a music major.

“In this world that we all live in, not only do we need artists, but we need people who are willing to put in the work to become their best selves for the sake of the community,” he said. “These practice rooms grant us the space to put in that work, and for that, I am beyond grateful.”

The five rooms range from smaller rooms for individual practice to larger spaces for ensembles. Their features include recording capability and virtual acoustic environments so that students can hear how they would sound in a cathedral, concert hall, or other settings, Ott said. He noted that the rooms—open 8 a.m. to midnight—are available to all students, not just music majors.

A student group called the Lincoln Center Jazz Ensemble provided background music. Another group of student musicians performed Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, to applause and cheers. “That just made my day,” Father Grimes said after their performance.

Vincent DeCola, S.J., an assistant dean in the Gabelli School of Business, spoke last, giving a blessing of the new space. “No doubt, we each have experienced the divine in listening to the particular music which enlivens our spirits,” he said.

But before that, he brought the house down with some singing of his own, “with apologies to Misters Gilbert and Sullivan”—an adaptation of the song He Is an Englishman, with lyrics tailored to Father Grimes.

Its title? “He Is a Fordham Ram.”

But is it possible to escape our attraction to fast fashion? And will crossing these items off your shopping list make things better or worse? Fordham experts weigh in.

Human Rights Abuse

“People get excited about the $2 T-shirt” and don’t think about the impact on factory workers making the clothing, said Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham.

Catastrophic garment factory fires and forced labor charges against China’s cotton industry have brought attention to human rights abuses, and even resulted in Congress passing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021, which banned imports from businesses in Xinjiang, China, that use forced labor. Paltry wages for field and factory workers, the majority of whom are women, are another well-known concern.

“Labor is one of, if not the most, expensive inputs in fashion,” Scafidi said, but ”when it comes to making fast fashion, it has to be cheap, cheaper, cheapest.”

Tik Tok Temptation

Younger consumers, mainly Gen Z and Millennials, are at the forefront of the demand for fast fashion, heavily influenced by social media and desire for the latest styles, said Fordham economist Giacomo Santangelo. 

“Platforms like TikTok are pivotal in shaping fashion choices,” he said. “This constant exposure to new styles and the desire for instant gratification lead to frequent buying, fueling the fast fashion market.”

Fast fashion brands’ low prices make their products broadly accessible, he said, noting that their affordability is especially appealing because of the state of the global economy and the desire to save money during the holiday giving season. Demand is also fed by the convenience and proliferation of fast fashion e-commerce sites, he said. 

Environmental Impact: ‘A Global Crisis’

That demand for fast fashion is also impacting the planet, due to overseas factories’ carbon emissions and water pollution, as well as all the products that end up in towering landfills, according to environmental watchdog organizations.

Clothes are being cast aside more quickly and in greater quantities than ever. Donated items from countries including the U.K., the U.S., and China are sold to vendors in places such as Ghana, which has one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets. But because these markets can’t handle the volume, many items are never worn again and end up in landfills or rivers. 

Meanwhile, garment factories continue to pollute rivers with toxic dyes and use tremendous amounts of fossil fuel for production and shipping across the world, according to the watchdog groups. And much of fast fashion relies on synthetic fibers made from plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas.

“There is a vast amount of waste and climate impact,” Scafidi said. “It has become a global crisis in that way.”

The Flip Side

But solutions to the problem are not as simple as they may seem. For one thing, fast fashion employs and supports the global poor and fuels developing economies, said Matthew Caulfield, Ph.D., assistant professor of ethics in the Gabelli School of Business.

“Most Americans—even Americans one would typically consider to be lower income—are nonetheless, by purchasing power standards, considered to be part of the global rich,” he said, adding that a single adult earning $24,000 per year makes more than seven times the global median.

“This is not to say that [fast and cheap production]is an unmitigated good—there are environmental concerns—or that the companies themselves have unassailable practices,” said Caulfield. “It’s only to suggest that one intuition that often seems entirely clear (that buying local is ethically superior) is not entirely clear. There are trade-offs we must navigate.”

Funding for the new outdoor play space was secured with help from Fordham’s Center for Educational Partnerships, a part of the University’s Graduate School of Education. The center partnered with MS 331 beginning in 2015, providing administrative help and assisting with tasks such as funding requests. GSE graduate Serapha Cruz is the principal of MS 331, which shares the complex with an elementary school, PS 306X. 

Anita Batisti, Ph.D. associate dean and director of the Center for Educational Partnerships, said that one of Fordham’s mandates is to improve the wellness and well-being of students and the community. Studies have shown that clean, well-kept playground equipment helps students feel more connected to their community while promoting exercise and play.

“It really was a natural progression for us to do this,” Batisti said. 

“With our skills for raising money and helping to prepare proposals and bids, we were able to move this process along through the various funding sources.” 

Fordham President Tania Tetlow joined Batisti at the Oct. 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 46,0000-square-foot play area. Also in attendance were GSE Acting Dean Ji Seon Lee, U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres; Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson; Councilmember Pierina Ana Sanchez, who helped secure funding for the project; and representatives from the Trust for Public Land and the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversaw the design and construction of the space.

When work on the $2.85 million project began in 2021, the space in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx was a cracked, crumbling stretch of asphalt. It now features a full basketball court, a volleyball court, game tables, an outdoor classroom, a gazebo, and play equipment for younger children. There is also fitness equipment for older students and community members, benches, a running track, and a turf field for soccer and football.

Fordham rose to number 32 for study abroad among U.S. doctoral-level institutions, according to this year’s Open Doors report on undergraduate study abroad participation. Approximately 40% of Fordham undergraduate students participate in a study abroad program.

For Joseph Rienti, director of the university’s international and study abroad programs, it’s exciting to see the participation rate begin to recover after the pandemic. Before international travel paused, around 50% of Fordham undergraduates took part in a study abroad experience. 

Global diversity is a longstanding value in Jesuit education, Rienti said, and study abroad programs help fulfill the University’s mission. 

“Study abroad broadens student perspectives and deepens their knowledge. We do that in our classrooms in New York, but there’s no better way to do that than to leave your comfort zone and learn from professors and students in another country,” Rienti said. 

A Study Abroad Option for Every Student

The wide variety of study abroad programs available to Fordham students makes it easier to participate, Rienti said. 

Fordham has major study abroad outposts in London, U.K., and Granada, Spain, and offers access to study abroad programs in over 50 countries on six continents. In the 2024-25 academic year, over 1,000 undergraduate students are studying abroad in 30 different countries.

Students can choose immersive “direct enroll” programs, where they learn alongside locals at esteemed universities across the globe, or “island programs” with classes designed to cater to American study abroad students. The university also offers short-term study abroad opportunities, typically ranging from one to four weeks, and special focus programs that integrate a central theme or academic topic, such as the 14-week theater intensive at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts, or the CNN Academy journalism intensive at University College Dublin. 

Now that federal, state, and University financial aid dollars can be applied to study abroad expenses, participation is more accessible than ever for students of all backgrounds. Students who qualify for financial aid such as a Pell grant, student loan, or tuition remission can use that aid to fund a study abroad experience. For those who do not receive financial aid, there are study abroad-specific scholarships available. 

The Open Doors Report includes data from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and the Institute of International Education.

The Lincoln Center Learning & Innovative Technology Environment, located on the fourth floor of Lowenstein in room 416, was operating at full tilt as of last Thursday. A miniature, plastic model of the Eiffel Tower was coming to life in the belly of a 3D printer. Students with virtual reality goggles practiced hurling imaginary objects across a giant flat-screen. And inside the brand-new video/podcasting studio, a pair of LITE’s work-study students demonstrated how to record a video while jotting notes on a screen, weatherman-style.

“People say when they walk into the space, they feel more creative—that LITE lets them think outside the box and be able to apply these technologies in their classes,” said Nicole Zeidan, Ed.D., assistant director of emerging educational technologies and learning space design. She helps connect LITE’s resources to students and faculty, such as Assistant Professor of Art History Nushelle de Silva, Ph.D.

Virtual Reality for Museum Studies

Earlier this fall, de Silva wanted her Museum Architecture students to see how a museum experience changes when you “visit” it virtually. Using VR headsets at Rose HIll’s LITE, students were able to view the “Mona Lisa” up close without the hordes of tourists in the Louvre. 

With this technology now available at Lincoln Center, said de Silva, “ I could turn this into homework. And then we would have the whole of the class time to talk about that experience.”

Printing Sturdy Replicas of Fragile Artifacts 

The tools at the LITE Center in Lowenstein and its counterpart at Rose Hill are designed to make classes experiential and creative work more accessible. Students can fashion theater costumes with LITE’s sewing machines or repair objects with its soldering equipment. A too-fragile-to-touch artifact can be 3D scanned, then 3D printed to create a durable facsimile, like the medieval seals the LITE Center recreated for Center for Medieval Studies Director Nicholas Paul. “The originals … are made out of wax and, obviously, extremely old, so having copies that we can pass around and look at closely is really useful in classes,” he said.

Fleur Eshghi, Ed.D., associate vice president of educational technology research computing, said she thinks many academic departments will make good use of the center. 

“We have been looking for space for Lincoln Center to build the same facilities [as Rose Hill],” she said. “And we have finally succeeded … I’m extremely excited.” 

Letting the Light in

Nicola Terzulli, learning space design lead for the Office of Technology, made the most of Lincoln Center’s light-filled space when designing the different stations.

“Lowenstein has those iconic windows for each floor,” said Terzulli, so he found a manufacturer who could soundproof a podcasting room but keep the glass walls. When the studio is not in use, you can see through it. But should you need privacy—or want to use the room to record a media-rich lesson for Panopto, Fordham’s platform for video classes—you just draw the room’s thick black curtains to enclose it.

Terzulli even used all-glass cabinets to make the tools at Lincoln Center’s LITE easy to see. 

“We wanted as much glass as possible … so people when they walk in, they see [these tools]and they’re like, ‘Hey, what’s that? Can I do that? Can I use that?’”

For details on the features and hours of the Lincoln Center and the Rose Hill LITE Centers, visit their site.

The study published last month in the Journal of Urban Health shows that the child populations in some neighborhoods are not being tested as completely as they should be, said Khalifa Afane, a student in the M.S. program in data science who wrote the study with his advisor, Juntao Chen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the computer and information science department.

For the study, they used the city’s publicly available lead testing data, which he said “nobody has analyzed before” at the neighborhood level.

A Toxic Heavy Metal

Lead is a toxic heavy metal that can cause learning disabilities and behavior problems. Children pick it up from lead-based paint or contaminated dust, soil, and water. Lead exposure risk “remains persistent” among vulnerable groups including low-income and non-Hispanic Black children, the study says.

The city promotes blood lead level testing and awareness of lead poisoning in high-risk communities through a variety of educational efforts and partnerships.

But some high-risk neighborhoods still don’t get enough testing, Afane said.  A case in point is Greenpoint in Brooklyn vs. South Beach in Staten Island. The study says that despite similar numbers of children and similar rates of lead testing, Greenpoint has consistently averaged eight times more cases—97 out of 3,760 tests conducted in 2021, compared to just 12 in South Beach that year (out of 3,720 tests).

There should actually be more testing of children in Greenpoint, Afane said, because their risk is clearly higher. While testing efforts have expanded in the city, he said, “it matters much more where these extra tests were actually conducted,” since lead is more prevalent in some neighborhoods than in others, he said.

More than 400 Cases May Have Been Missed

For the study, he analyzed test result data from 2005 to 2021, focusing on children under 6 years old who were found to have blood lead levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter. Afane applied a machine learning algorithm to the testing data and projected that another 410 children with elevated blood lead levels might be identified per year citywide, mostly in vulnerable areas, by expanding testing in neighborhoods that tend to have higher case rates.

The highest-risk neighborhoods are in Brooklyn, Queens, and the north shore of Staten Island, and average about 12 cases per 1,000 tests, compared to less than four in low-risk neighborhoods, Afane said.

The city helps coordinate care for children with elevated levels and also works to reduce lead hazards. Since 2005, the number of New York City children under 6 years old with elevated blood lead levels has dropped 93%, a city report says.

Using a Data-Informed Strategy

But the study recommends a better, data-informed, strategy to focus more lead testing on high-need areas. “What we wanted to highlight here is that this needs to be done and reported at the neighborhood level, not at the city level,” Afane said.

The study also recommends awareness campaigns in high-risk areas emphasizing early detection, and it calls on local authorities to step up monitoring of water quality and blood lead levels in pregnant women.

“Our main goal was to use data science and machine learning tools to genuinely improve the city,” Afane said. “Data analysis is a powerful skill that could be used much more often to make a positive impact in our communities.”

The 11 new items include antiquities from Roman Spain—a fascinating and under-studied area of the ancient Mediterranean basin, according to the museum’s curator, Jennifer Udell. There are also new pieces of Greek and Roman sculpture from the Brooklyn Museum.

A Welcoming Space for All  

Udell said the museum has attracted some “regulars”—students who stop by often and help out around the space. Some have even helped to install the objects, getting the rare opportunity to unbox and arrange pieces of pottery and glass created by human hands thousands of years ago. 

One such student is senior Grace Monteith. When the museum reopened in 2022 after the pandemic, she helped with the reinstallation. “The unpacking was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Dr. Udell took a picture of me and it’s everywhere on my social media. It’s the coolest,” she said. 

First-Hand Encounters with Antiquities

The museum is a teaching collection that creates unique experiential learning opportunities. Professors in several academic departments bring their classes to the museum, and Udell herself teaches courses in museum studies and other subjects. Like business students who gain experience on the Gabelli School trading floors, students who take a museum studies class with Udell get to work with the objects, make decisions about how they’re presented, and curate a group exhibit at the end of the semester. 

One group of students, Udell’s interns for this semester, are at work on an interactive new development: a mobile app through Bloomberg Connects that will offer museum visitors a guided tour of the collection. They’re putting together audio and video content that will provide historical context and highlight points of interest. 

Udell says the tour will not just be for art history students. The app will have information about theatrical masks for theater majors, ancient glass objects for those interested in organic chemistry, and even something for students studying finance. “We have a cuneiform tablet that’s a receipt for a bundle of reeds. It’s not crypto, but it is ancient economies,” she said. 

New Wonders with Each Visit 

For senior Ryan Moore, visiting the museum never gets old. “Every time I come I notice something new that I’ve never seen before,” said Moore, who helped to reinstall the objects for the reopening in 2022. He pointed to a case he’d helped to arrange, noting the way a sculpture’s wings parted to create the perfect opening through which the object in the background could be seen unobstructed. 

“That’s an arrangement I happened on by chance,” he said. “It’s something I’m still proud of to this day.”