The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 105, Issue 5
TheFordhamRam.com
Fordham
Fordham
Reacts to
Hosts Wellness
Earthquake in
Week for
Turkey
Students
By ANTONI ZLATANOVSKI
By GRACE GALBREATH
The Republics of Turkey and Syria were hit with a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake earlier this month on Feb. 6, 2023, at approximately 4:15 a.m. The magnitude struck the south-central part of Turkey near the nation’s border with Syria. Just 11 minutes later, there occurred an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.7. The effects of the earthquake were devastating, with its force easily taking down buildings that were not built to withstand such a rare magnitude of an earthquake. In fact, the region has not seen major earthquakes for more than 200 years, nor has it received any warning signs of such an event. On Feb. 21, 2023, Turkey and Syria were hit with another earthquake at a 6.4 magnitude near the city of Antakya, which is near the border of Syria. According to various sources, the death toll has officially surpassed 40,000 people. Moreover, various other Balkan and European countries have
Last week, Fordham University hosted Wellness Week, which ran from Feb. 13 to Feb. 17. The week of events were held in a collaboration between Fordham College at Rose Hill, the Gabelli School of Business and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). The week’s events emphasized “cura personalis” and educated the Fordham community on the eight dimensions of holistic wellness. Faaria Fasih-Ahmad, a higher education leadership fellow, planned the week of events with the help of Patricio Meneses, interim associate dean for student support and academic initiatives, By SOFIA DONOHUE and Marisa Villani, senior asDIGITAL PRODUCER sistant dean for undergraduate studies. “The whole idea of Wellness Week is to get students to engage with resources on campus. There are a lot of resources, like the writing center and career center, that are there for the students. We are trying to create something where students can access these
SEE TURKEY, PAGE 3
SEE WELLNESS, PAGE 4
STAFF WRITER
February 22, 2023
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY OF ALEXANDRA RAPP FOR THE FORDHAM RAM
Kevin Richardson, pictured on the right, is a survivor of the Exonerated Five, and he was the keynote speaker.
ASILI Hosts Lecture on Intersection of Blackness and U.S. Criminal Justice System By ALEXANDRA RAPP CONTRIBUTING WRITER
This past Wednesday, Fordham’s Black Student Alliance (ASILI) held their annual Black History Month keynote speaker event. The keynote speaker, Kevin Richardson, is a survivor of the Exonerated Five, formerly known as the Central Park Five. Today,
Richardson is an advocate for criminal justice reform and regularly gives speeches telling his story with the prison industrial complex and his life during and after his wrongful conviction as a teenager. Richardson was 14 years old on April 19, 1989 when he and four other teengers
were reprimanded leaving Central Park and subsequently accused of the violent rape and assault of a white female jogger. All five of the boys were convicted on charges including attempted murder, rape and assault, each spending between six and 13 years in prison. Richardson was SEE ASILI, PAGE 4
Students Face Rising Need for Mental Health Services By EMMA KIM NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM
40 graduate and undergraduate students came together for an Ignatian reflection and to pack meals.
Office of Mission Integration & Ministry Hosts Food Insecurity Event By TASNIMAH RAHMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
This past Monday, Feb. 13, the Office of Mission Integration & Ministry held a food insecurity reflection at Rose Hill by packing 250 meals for neighborhood community fridges
and an Ignatian Reflection from 1-2:30 p.m. This event is one of the projects/programs partnered with Pedro Arrupe Volunteers (PAV) under the Office of Campus Ministry, available to all students to participate throughout the year. It is
held on both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses and is an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to execute meaningful service. The program shares the vision of General Pedro Arrupe, “Men and women for others,” refocusing SEE FOOD, PAGE 5
A student survey done by Inside Higher Ed in 2021 during COVID-19 showed that 65% of students reported having fair or poor mental health, 47% said they could have used some or a lot of support from their college but only 15% engaged in college-offered counseling in the past year. In a more recent survey from 2022, only 34% of students
who said they struggled with mental health used some sort of counseling. The Ram reached out to Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) about their preparedness to address all of Fordham’s student body’s mental health needs. Jeffrey Ng, director of CPS, said that CPS served “over 2,050 unique students or about 14% of the student body” last year. Ng added that all clinical SEE HEALTH, PAGE 5
in this issue
News
Page 3
Opinion
Page 9
Junior Researches Physics to Create Educational Website
It's Time to Reimagine Midterm Season
Culture Page 12
Sports
Rihanna "Rihturns" at the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show
Page 20
Men's Basketball Rolls Over Saint Bonaventure, Suffers at VCU