The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 105, Issue 13
TheFordhamRam.com
September 13, 2023
Serving the City Offers Paid Internships
Fordham Phases in Second Wave of Advising Program
By SOFIA DONOHUE
By SAMANTHA MINEAR
Fordham’s Serving the City Internship program provides both Fordham College Rose Hill and Fordham College Lincoln Center students with access to paid internships with nonprofit organizations in the New York area. The program was founded on the goal to give students access to internships that reward them with stipends, as well as advance the work of nonprofits. Laura Auricchio, Ph.D, dean at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, oversees the Serving the City program alongside Maura Mast, Ph.D, dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “We knew that students in FCLC and FCRH were looking to gain experience through internships, but we also knew that often these internships were unpaid. Our vision was to build a program that provided stipends for students to participate in internships at non-profit institutions,” said Auricchio. According to Auricchio, the
In summer 2022, Fordham College Rose Hill and Fordham College Lincoln Center launched a new cooperative advising system for first-year students known as the Fordham College Advising Center. This program — created to better suit the needs of Fordham’s fledgling class — recently introduced its second phase, a new wave of dedicated advisors to support first-year adjustment. Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, and Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, collaborated to establish the advising center to replace the university’s previous system of advising. In past years, advising was a collective effort: “an incoming student would work with a summer faculty advisor,” said Mast, and then they “would be supported by a core advisor” with the possibility of “a different sophomore core advisor” and a major advisor upon declaring their major. Additionally, many students had several major advisors due to declaring certain tracks in their majors or turnover in department leadership. In some cases, this led to confused students receiving inadequate academic support. Recognizing this problem, FCRH and FCLC set out to reconfigure the advising system to better assist first-year students acclimating to the university and to aid upperclassmen in completing their major requirements. In 2020, Fordham released their strategic plan for 202126 titled “Educating for Justice.” Mast and Auricchio cite Fordham’s goal of “cultivat[ing] a diverse,
FEATURES EDITOR
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
SEE SERVING, PAGE 4
COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM
Last spring, President Tetlow sent out an email informing students that COVID-19 policies would end.
Fordham’s COVID-19 Changes Sweep Campus for Fall Semester By NORA MALONE
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It’s been more than three years since COVID-19 was declared a national emergency, and within that time millions of people died, more became infected and the world came to a halt. However, over the past several months, businesses and schools nationwide have been reopening. In May,
President Joe Biden announced that COVID-19’s national emergency status had expired and would not be renewed. This led to many organizations ending their mandates and beginning to go back to what they considered “normal”; Fordham was among them. Within two weeks of Biden’s announcement, Fordham President Tania Tetlow sent an email informing the Fordham community
that the university would be ending its COVID-19 policies. These included mandatory vaccines, daily health checks and emails reporting positive cases. “Vaccines will no longer be required, however, because new variants increasingly have evaded the vaccine’s initially strong ability to prevent transmission of the disease,” said Tetlow in her SEE COVID, PAGE 4
Fordham Hires New Chief Financial Officer
By GRACE GALBREATH ASST. NEWS EDITOR
report was sent out to instructors, with suggestions and sample language for those who wished to mention AI policies in fall semester syllabuses. The report makes room for three approaches to AI in the classroom: no AI, limited AI and full AI. In the latter kind of
On Aug. 29, President Tania Tetlow announced in an email that Fordham has hired Tokumbo Shobowale to work as Fordham’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as well as senior vice president and treasurer. Shobowale, who will assume the position on Oct. 13, has over a decade of experience in the world of higher education. For the last 10 years, Shobowale served as the executive vice president for business and operations at The New School. Before his time at The New School, Shobowale was the director of infrastructure for New York City’s Initiative on Rebuilding and Resiliency. He also has experience helping coordinate economic development in the
SEE AI, PAGE 3
SEE CFO, PAGE 3
COURTESY OF PIXABAY
Since its introduction to public consciousness, ChatGPT has provoked endless debates in academia.
Fordham Discusses Artificial Intelligence Use in the Classroom By LAINE FINEGAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Since the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has had an explosive introduction into everyday life. With it, industries, institutions
and individuals have been forced to consider the implications of such technology, especially in academic settings. Over the summer, Fordham held a strategizing session, aimed at determining the correct way to handle AI use in the classroom. The
SEE ADVISING, PAGE 5
in this issue
Opinion Page 8 We Owe Our OLs a "Thank You"
Culture
Page 11
Best Bagels On Campus at Bronx Bagel Company
Sports
Page 20
Golf Opens Season, Jack Mrva Wins Hartford Hawks Invitational