The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 105, Issue 9
Fordham Que(e)ry Presents Results from LGBTQ+ Survey
RHA Plans Inaugural Rose Ball for Students
By SOFIA DONOHUE
By GRACE GALBREATH
On March 30, a group of students presented the results from a survey of over 300 LGBTQ+ Fordham students. The Fordham Que(e)ry is a follow-up from the 2013 Que(e)ry survey completed by Jeff Lockhart. The Que(e)ry included a range of questions pertaining to the goal of improving the LGBTQ+ experience at Fordham and seeing how the LGBTQ+ experience has changed over the last 10 years. The event, facilitated by Benedict Reilly, FCRH ’23, presented the preliminary findings of the survey. Four students made up the Que(e)ry team: Lilly Gieseke, FCRH ’23, Fareea Khan, FCRH ’24, Ethan Hammett, FCRH ’23, and Reilly. The survey received 333 valid responses from Fordham undergraduate and graduate students from both campuses. Although the focus of The Que(e)ry was gender and sexual minority students, the survey was open to everyone.
In a USG meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, a delegate for the Residence Hall Association (RHA) said that Under the Tent, their annual formal on Martyrs’ Lawn, will be replaced with a more costeffective formal. The new formal, Fordham’s Inaugural Rose Ball, is set to take place on April 29. RHA has made many structural changes to the annual formal. The event will now be indoors, in the McShane Campus Center, but will still include food, music and drinks. Executive President of RHA, Salvatore Imbornone III, FCRH ’23, said that RHA has been By SOFIA DONOHUE working hard to plan the event. DIGITAL PRODUCER He said, “To honor our campus we have decided to name the event The Rose Ball. The location will be in McShane Ballroom and will be a formal night of dance, music, food and friends. Due to feedback from our last dance, we will have a DJ all hours of the event so students can dance the night
SEE QUE(E)RY, PAGE 6
SEE ROSE, PAGE 6
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
April 5, 2023
TheFordhamRam.com
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM
In April 2022, Fordham Graduate Student Workers Union held an election to officially establish the union.
How Fordham’s Graduate Student Workers Are Unionzing By RINA LOKAJ
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Benjamin Van Dyne, a Ph.D. graduate student in Fordham’s theology department and a father of two young boys, was assigned to teach a class during summer 2022. A few weeks before he was supposed to start teaching, Fordham canceled
the class, meaning he would not receive the $7,000 he was expecting to earn. Van Dyne said that left him in a big financial hole. “I was scrambling to pay back the money that I had basically put on my credit card to pay rent and to buy groceries for me and the kids for the summer,” Van Dyne said.
Van Dyne says his scramble to make money continued into the autumn. In fall 2022, he was teaching his assigned class at Fordham, two more classes at two different universities in New York City and worked 20 hours a week at a church to make ends meet. “Then I SEE GRADUATE, PAGE 3
Fordham Hosts Conversation with Justice Sotomayor By ISABEL DANZIS EDITOR IN CHIEF
COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM
On March 23, Commuting Student Association had their first event, Rams Blockfest.
Fordham’s Commuting Student Association Hosts Commuter Month By EMMA KIM NEWS EDITOR
Commuting Student Association (CSA) is hosting programming for Commuter Month from late March into April. Last year, CSA had a Commuter Week,
but they recently expanded the event into a month. This year Commuter Month is paying homage to 2020’s RamFest, which was the theme of their 2020 Commuter Week celebration. The month will have four festival-themed events
throughout the month, including Rams Blockfest, Spudfest, NYC Street Food Fest and Movie Mania Filmfest from March 23 to April 12. The first event, Rams Blockfest, took place on March 23 on McShane Lawn, where there was ice cream SEE CSA, PAGE 5
President Tania Tetlow hosted a conversation with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in Fordham University’s School of Law’s annual Robert L. Levine Distinguished Lecture Series on March 31, 2023. Tetlow sat with students and faculty to facilitate the conversation while Sotomayor joined virtually. Tetlow opened the conversation by asking Sotomayor how her experience growing up in the Bronx impacts her view of the law.
“The Bronx has shaped me in every important way,” said Sotomayor. Sotomayor said growing up in public housing in the Bronx exposed her to different types of people, and she saw how they were all affected by the law. She said seeing the law’s effects on people in the Bronx became a part of her legal philosophy, meaning that she considers the human impact whenever she makes a ruling. Sotomayor also added that people have dubbed her “Sonia from the Bronx,” which she has embraced throughout her career. Tetlow asked Sotomayor about SEE TETLOW, PAGE 5
in this issue
News
Page 5
Opinion
Page 10
Fordham Dining Hosts Premium Dinner Restaurant Nights
New Child Labor Laws Will Harm Children Nationwide
Culture Page 15
Sports
Page 20
Keating Steps to Fordham Softball Begins Conference Prep: Performance Groups Play with Series Win Wow