Spearheading the donation effort was Olga Baez, an administrative assistant in Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s residential life office.

“I grew up in the Bronx … It doesn’t make sense for us not to coordinate with different nonprofits to make sure that these items are going to people in need,” said Baez. “We’re supporting the Bronx—we’re supporting different organizations that are able to help people.”

About 30 plastic bags of clothes, enough residential hall items to fill a truck, and several bags of nonperishable items were distributed to six nonprofit organizations across New York City. Lightly used mini fridges were given to high school seniors at the Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology and the Mott Haven Educational Campus. Other donated items include kitchenware, cleaning supplies, bed linens, hangers, shoes, storage containers, mirrors, and microwaves.

In years past, students dropped off clothing donations in Goodwill bins and nonperishable snacks at the end of the academic year. But this year—the third consecutive year that Lincoln Center has hosted a student donation drive—is different.

“This year, we went a little bigger,” Baez said. “We allotted one of the student lounges [in McMahon]for all the items to be donated there. We used one of the student lounges at McKeon as well.”

Some items were shuttled via Ram Van to a homeless shelter for mothers and their children in the Bronx. Others were given to Grad Bag, an organization that gives lightly used residential hall items to incoming first-year college students from low-income households.

Bridge Haven Family Traditional Residence, a transitional shelter for families, was another recipient of the donated household items.

“The goal is for them to move into their own space,” Baez said. “That’s why a lot of the items, like the kitchenware, mirrors, and microwaves, are so useful for them.”

Emaeyak Ekanem, the executive director of Christ Disciples Int’l Ministries, Inc., a church in the Bronx that received some of the donations, said many of the people in the church’s community “don’t have access” to these household items that so many people take for granted.  Fordham’s donation, he said, “helps to further our mission of providing for the needy in the community.”

There is currently no heat, hot water, nor cooking gas service in the Law School and McKeon Hall because of gas main repairs that required gas to be shut off to the building. A repair crew has been on site since early Friday morning, and the University anticipates repairs should be completed by Friday evening. Heat, hot water, and cooking gas service may resume Friday evening, but more likely will not be available until Saturday, Feb. 27.

There is no danger to the students, faculty and staff in the Law School and McKeon Hall. Temperatures inside the building will remain comfortable for the next 24 hours at least—the Law School-McKeon Hall complex is a modern, well-insulated building—but residents are asked not to open windows nor hold exterior doors open unnecessarily to avoid more rapid loss of heat. Should repairs take much longer than anticipated, the University has contingency plans to temporarily move classes and student residents to other buildings.

Residents of McKeon Hall who need a hot shower may use the Fitness Center Locker rooms on the 2nd floor of McMahon Hall: Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Dining services in the building will operate on their normal schedules through this evening.

All events and meetings planned at the Law School for Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26 and 27, will take place as scheduled.

Faculty, students, and staff can call either of the following numbers for the latest updates:
(718) 817-5555
(212) 636-7777

As always, please call Fordham Public Safety at (212) 636-6076 or (718) 817-2222 in an emergency, or if you have any questions.

We apologize for any inconvenience the outage may cause. Thank you, in advance, for your cooperation and understanding.

Until now.

On Nov. 10, workers gingerly lifted Dream, a 10-by-13-foot abstract painting by William Conlon, into place onto the wall at the stairwell’s halfway section.

For Conlon, a professor of visual arts at Fordham College at Lincoln Center  since 1979 and former head of the visual arts department, the piece is a final send-off to the University after calling it home for 35 years. He will scale back his teaching duties next year before retiring.

He said he knew he wanted to give the University a piece for the space above the stairs the minute he laid eyes on it. Dream, one of the largest pieces he’s created in recent years, took him about a year to finish at his studio in Portland, Maine.

His hope for the work is embodied in the title.

“What a lot of students here need is to dream a little more, and so I set out to do a painting that’s about dreaming and about taking risks. Maybe it’ll inspire them to take on an adventure in their lives, in addition to an education,” he said.

The shapes and forms of the painting follow one another in a way that’s reminiscent of stream of consciousness, he said. The Chinese character for the word dream sits in the middle of a yellow square in the middle of the canvas; one of several elements that interlock with each other and force passers-by to take notice.

“I wanted to leave a legacy for the students, and the nice thing about being a professor and an artist is I can do that through a work of art,” he said.

An official unveiling of Dream and reception will be held next week Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Skadden Conference Center of Fordham Law School. You can RSVP through Friday, Nov. 13 at [email protected].

Elodie Huston (above, left) and her roommate Sithumi Narasinghe Priya Dewage are among the first residents of McKeon Hall. The new residence hall is home to some 400 undergraduates, including 62 enrolled in the Gabelli School’s new undergraduate program at Lincoln Center, offering a B.S. in global business.

“I’ve found that I’ve really come into my own in the city,” says Huston, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center freshman from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. “I thrive on being surrounded by conversation, movement, and color.”

She also considers herself lucky to have been assigned great roommates. “I was paired with two girls who have been a constant source of energy, hilarity, and support as I’ve transitioned into college life.”

Labor Day weekend marked both the unofficial end of summer this year and the arrival of Fordham’s Class of 2018. At Lincoln Center’s McKeon Hall, students oohed and aahed the views from their rooms as high as 22 stories up, while below them, Law School faculty and staff that had previously been located in various spaces had already begun to enjoy camaraderie of sharing a unified space.

The Rose Hill campus likewise welcomed 130 incoming freshman with a new space, the recently renovated Loyola Hall. And while that six-story, 86-year-old Gothic structure bears little resemblance to the undulating glass and metal curves of McKeon Hall, the message from within remained the same: Welcome.

— Photos by Bruce Gilbert and Chris Taggart

For more pictures of Opening Day, visit

Rose Hill:
http://fordhamnotes.blogspot.com/2014/09/rose-hill-opening-day-2014-one-part.html

And

Lincoln Center:
http://fordhamnotes.blogspot.com/2014/09/lincoln-center-opening-day-in-pictures.html