The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 105, Issue 4
TheFordhamRam.com
February 15, 2023
USG Faces Backlash Amid Club Budget Changes
SLC Discusses Steering Committee and Club Absences
By SAMANTHA MINEAR
By EMMA KIM
In their first email of the spring semester, the Outdoors Club — known for their regular rock climbing events — wrote to members: “due to reasons out of our control, our funding has been severely diminished.” The email cited these budget cuts as the reason for why they will no longer be able to do events of their “usual caliber.” Funding and budgeting tends to be a sensitive topic at Fordham. These budget cuts are one of the money-saving measures the school has taken in the past couple of years. Last May, they increased tuition by 4% in response to funds lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outdoors Club, run by Emma Reynolds, FCRH ’23, is “not a block funded organization, meaning all of [the] events are budgeted for and must be reviewed and individually accepted or denied for funding.” To combat this financial loss, they have begun to collect membership dues. Though the $10 payment is optional, those who
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Rose Hill held its monthly Student Life Council (SLC) in the McShane Campus Center with a special guest from one of the co-chairs of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is leading a self-study of the university before the upcoming evaluation from the Middle States Association of the Commission of Higher Education (Middle States) in 2025, which determines the university’s accreditation. The meeting was commenced by Kendra Kleintop, GSB ’24, vice president of RHA. She introduced Greer Jason-DiBartaolo, who is one of the co-chairs of the Steering Committee and a dean from the Gabelli School of Business. The other co-chair, who was not present, is Melissa Labonte from the political science department at Rose Hill. Jason-DiBartaolo started the meeting off and explained that all universities are evaluated by an independent group called the Middle States every eight years, and they conduct the university’s accreditation process. “They reverify that the university should maintain its accredited status,” said Jason-DiBartaolo. “[This] process is a long one. It takes over two years, and we just started in fall of 2022. It will culminate in a visit in spring [of] 2025.” She explained that the selfstudy aims to be “thorough, reflective, transparent and also inclusive.” Right now, the co-chairs are putting together the committee by getting representatives from across the university. They are also putting together a self-study design, which is a report that explains how they are going to go about the process of the self-study and what they are
FEATURES EDITOR
SEE BUDGET, PAGE 4
NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM
One of CAB's events was making Love Pies at Pugsley’s Pizza, a popular off-campus pizzeria.
Fordham’s Campus Activity Board Hosts Valentine’s Week By KEAGAN OSTOP
Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and midterms. During these event weeks each CAB committee aims to host a unique event to provide students opportunities for festive celebrations and goodies. Students involved in CAB meet every week throughout the school year to brainstorm new ideas, discuss the current student body’s interests and change past events. The events
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Between Feb. 5 and Feb. 16, the Fordham Campus Activities Board (CAB) is hosting seven free Valentine's Day-themed events for students. CAB is made up of nine different committees that plan free events for students on campus. The most popular event week is Spring Weekend, but CAB also hosts event weeks for
are spaced out over a week or more to try to allow a range of opportunities for students to attend. The Valentine's Day celebrations kicked off on Sunday, Feb. 5 with CAB’s Weekend Activities Committee (WAC). Many students know WAC for their monthly bingo and weekend outings, WAC brought a group of students to make Love Pies SEE VALENTINE, PAGE 4
Fordham Law Boycotts US News Rankings By ANTONI ZLATANOVSKI STAFF WRITER
ation of a brand new arcade, as well as a Grab-and-Go near the Marketplace. When walking past the McShane construction site, students can see that the exterior of the building, which will stand in between the McShane Center and the Rose Hill Gymnasium,
Fordham University has officially become the 24th law school in the country to boycott the U.S. News & World Report rankings. According to a statement made by Matthew Diller, dean of Fordham Law School, the university “will no longer provide data to the U.S. News for use in its ranking other than information that is already generally available to the public.” Additionally, he described the U.S. News ranking system as “deeply flawed” and that it does not accurately represent Fordham as a university, as the algorithm is known for “omitting important criteria” when calculating university rankings. According to the statement sent by Diller, the
SEE UPDATES, PAGE 4
SEE RANKINGS, PAGE 3
COURTESY OF ALEX ANTONOV/THE FORDHAM RAM
The new McShane Campus Center is now currently in Phase 2 of its construction, which will end in 2023.
Updates on Phase 2 of the McShane Campus Center Construction By ANTONI ZLATANOVSKI STAFF WRITER
This past spring, many Fordham students were excited to witness the grand opening of the McShane Campus Center. Six months before the COVID-19 pandemic, Fordham began to
take down what was originally the McGinley Center in order to make space for the new McShane Campus Center. In all, the new space is planned to contain a gym, pool, restaurants as well as various study spaces for students. Phase 2 will include the cre-
SEE STEERING, PAGE 5
in this issue
Opinion Page 8 The United States Was Right to Burst China's Bubble
Culture
Page 11
Celebrating Platonic Love on Galentine’s Day
Sports
Page 20
Men’s Basketball Wins 20 Games for the First Time Since 1991