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Amherst will be replacing the student loan portion of all students’ financial aid packages with a scholarship.
All in Fordham
mmm...Chicken roll.
This campus always feels like home....
The New York Times featured an article about Fordham's plans for expansion at its Lincoln Center Campus--a plan that includes "a high-rise quadrangle for 10,600 students would be created on the
Columbus Avenue end of the superblock between 60th and 62nd Streets,
with seven new buildings around a 1.5-acre courtyard." This plan is far from new, though. In fact, the sketches that appeared in the article detailing what Fordham Lincoln Center might look like in the future actually appeared much earlier in The Ram--the University's student run newspaper in 2000. (I'm pretty sure it was 2000, because I think it was related to Fordham in the new Millenium. Anyway... I'm quite sure I've seen this before).
If I remember correctly, the plans also included moving the undergraduate business school to Lincoln Center as well. As much as I hate to say it, this makes a lot of sense. While I enjoyed my time at Rose Hill, if you are going to have a more competitive business program, it really needs to be in Manhatten. That is not to say that you won't have students living at Rose Hill taking classes at the Lincoln Center business school. Having the classes in the city gives the school better access to local businesses for internships, recruiting, and for having professionals contributing in the classroom with speaking engagements.
Even if this wasn't in the Ram before, it doesn't take a lot of effort to realize how valuable Fordham's location on 60th and Columbus is, and how underutilized it is in terms of the numbers of students it serves.
This is ambitious thinking and I hope it comes to fruition. I have two hopes for the plan, though. First, and most important, I hope the expansion is done in such a manner that it maintains all of Fordham's traditions--which include a very personal touch with small class sizes, accessable faculty, and a tight community of students. This also includes maintaining the influence of the Jesuit philosophy. I hope expansion of the student body doesn't dilute the amount of people interested in what this philosophy brings to bear.
Second, I hope that the alumni start opening their pockets when those little envelopes come in the mail when the school is headed in the right direction like this. The percentage of alumni who donate, especially relative to the number of people who got some kind of scholarships or financial aid, is pathetic. There's really no excuse for it. I hate it when people say, "I gave them enough money." Do you water a plant with a gallon of water the first day you get it and then forget about it? These percentage giving rates count bigtime in college rankings and the school, which doesn't run off of its endowment like Harvard or Princeton, really needs the money as it ramps up to become a premier institution. If the giving rates go up, then Fordham can actually see these ambitious plans through. Then, all of the sudden, you got a degree from the premier Catholic college in the country. What's that worth to you? Is it worth $100 a year for the rest of your life? Sounds like a lot? $5000 over the next 50 years doesn't sound like a lot to me, especially if all of the sudden you went to the 25th ranked school in the country (That's where Georgetown is right now... Fordham is 70th.) Anyway... enough of my grandstanding. This move is good for Fordham. I just hope they do it right and that the alumni give the school the support it needs to get there.
GothamGal has a though provoking post up about the insanity of carefully crafting over acheivers and getting kids into college today. She says that we should drop the current system and look for a new way to screen students... fewer tests, less pressure.
I do think that what is going on is insane, but anytime there's insanity, you don't have to get caught up in it.
When I was in high school, the average graduating SAT score for my class was 1350. Now I hear its up over 1400... average... 1400! I was lucky because we all seemed to take a pretty healthy approach to it, but one could go nuts trying to test prep your way to a score like that.
If you need to take two test prep courses and hire a private tutor to get your kid to score a 1520, then, well, sorry, that kid just isn't a 1520 student. I remember this guy in my freshmen year of college who used to study in the lounge about 10 hours a day to get a 3.7 and I just remember heading out the door with my baseball glove to have a catch and enjoy a nice day while he was studying. If that was what it took to get the really high grades, well then I just wasn't going to be a great student... simple as that.
It was that kind of approach that I had in high school. In hindsight, I probably could have worked harder, I admit, but it was where my head was at the time. Pushing me wouldn't have helped.. .I had to push myself... which I did, big time, when I got to Fordham. Yeah, so I went to Fordham, which was a good school, but it wasn't Harvard or Yale or Princeton. However, I wouldn't be where I am today at another school. Being at Fordham, close to the city, enabled me to intern at the GM pension fund during school. It also meant that another Fordham grad who was at GM sort of took me under his wing, rather than the Harvard intern we had, because he felt like this guy would get everything he wanted anyway. That led directly to my job in the private equity group, which led to Union Square Ventures, which led to Oddcast.
If I was coming out of Harvard in '01, it wouldn't have been enough for me to just go to Harvard... I would have had to beat out all my own classmates for jobs. When you go to a top school, you almost have to be the best there, too, because there will already be 5 or 6 Harvard resumes in for a job, and they're not going to interview all of you.
You don't have to go to a top ten school and you don't have to be a Goldman Sachs investment banker to be successful either. Teach your kids to follow their own way at their own pace. Of course, give them all the tools and encouragement to be their best, but don't push them to be more than they're mentally ready to handle. I wasn't ready to take the lead in high school and I would have burned out very early had I tried. I'm lucky that my parents were just happy I was in a good school and supportive of whatever I did. They let me come around on my own terms.
Oh, and I wound up doing better than that kid who studied ten hours a day... and I really do owe it mostly to my mental health. In college, I really believe its really not about how hard you work, but more about how smart you work and how you handle stress. Oh, and networking, too. You'll never make good contacts in your field, which can take you a lot further than your GPA, if you're a big ball of stress that seems mentally unstable.
I just heard that Ed Wahesh will now be running Fordham's peer education/support programs out of Student Activities. I graduated with Ed in 2001. He was always very dedicated to the school and I'm glad to see him back at FU after a hiatus at Scranton. Welcome back to the big show, Ed.
Fordham's first game at Roosevelt Island's Copobianco Field felt like practice... Actually, it was practice, because the ABA Stingers didn't show--not a one of them. That means Fordham was able to post their first win of the season, which, of course, isn't the way this hungry team wants to win.
"This sucks. I wanted to play," manager Charlie O'Donnell, known for his eloquence, told reporters after the game.
The nightcap didn't prove as successful, however. It turns out that, unlike the first game, 90% of success isn't just showing up. It turns out you have to hit and field, too--two little areas that Fordham has been struggling with as of late. Monday's struggles resulted, unfortunately for this expansion franchise, in a 17-2 drubbing.
AIG took advantage of the cozy Copo confines early, scoring five in the first and six in the second--all off rookie starter and Jay Buhner impersonator Jason Gianetti.
Teammates tried to comfort Gianetti after his performance and the following exchange took place in the clubhouse:
"That ball wouldn't have been out of a lot of parks."
"Name one."
"Yellowstone."
Patti Dickerson took over in the fourth, providing one of the lone bright spots in the game. Patti turned in a solid mop-up effort and will be likely to start the team's next game.
Fordham's only two runs came late in the game. Kevin Rodricks lashed a double to left, tearing the stiches off the ball (which is amazing considering the Clincher softballs don't actually have stiches). Charlie O'Donnell, coming off a shoe string catch in center the inning before, then followed up with a monster, albeit lonely, blast to the concrete in right center. That would be it for the Fordham offence though. Rumors have it that the team is considering letting go hitting coach Amanda Hickey.
There were a couple of other bright spots for Fordham. Ryan St. Germain threw out a runner at home from right field--the other end of which featured a nifty tag from catcher Nicole Horsford. Chrissy Guerrero turned in a solid defensive effort at second base as well.
There were no photos from the game, however, due to the illness of team photographer and emerging offensive star Anntoinette Mirsberger. She should be off the DL by the next game, marking a return to the photographic documentation of the team's hijinks and shananagans.
**Please read this entire post, think about it, and do something about it. Either a) seriously consider what I have to say or b) please pass this on to all of the Fordham alumni you know.**
I got this note last week...
"Fordham University would like to thank the 1,166 young alumni (classes of
1995-2004) who have already made a gift this year. We still need another
834 gifts to reach our young alumni goals of 2,000 donors and 17%
participation.
Every gift moves us closer to achieving our goals."
Here's my question: What does 2,000 donors mean to me? Answer: Nothing.
That's Fordham's reason for me to donate, but its not my reason. No one is going to give back to Fordham so that we can reach some psychologically satisfying, evenly divisible number. Why 2,000? Why not 2,106? Either way, it sucks that our goals are so low.
What sucks even more is that my class, the Class of 2001, is one of the worst giving classes. As of today, only 9.81% of my class donates back to the school. The best class, the Class of 1947, gives at a 29.38% clip. Overall, the whole school is sitting at 15.19%.
So, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Why can't my class be the top class? For once, why doesn't Fordham pick a ridiculous goal and go after it. So I did the math. To get up to a 30%, our class needs 276 more givers by June 30th. That's about 6 people a day. So, screw 9%. If you read this post, especially if you're in the Class of 2001, and you decide to give back, please comment at the bottom. How cool would it be to actually get 276 people commenting and changing their mind about making a financial contribution?
How? Well, you just can't spam people with "Go Fordham!" e-mails and expect people to open their wallets. Nor does the "reaching 2,000 givers" thing really work either. People need to want to give back. They can't be convinced to. If you didn't enjoy your Fordham experience and don't believe in the school, there's nothing anyone can say or do to make you want to give. But, I know that at least 30% of the people I went to school with had a really positive experience (obviously more than 30%) so, somewhere there's a disconnect. So, to help promote the idea of giving back, I'm going to put up a few of my own reasons why to help people rethink the whole giving thing.
1. Other people gave to me so that I could attend Fordham. My parents were semi-retired when I graduated high school. We weren't sure what we were going to be able to afford, and had I not gotten the scholarship and financial aid I got from Fordham, I would have gone to a state school. Nothing against state schools, but the ONLY reason I went to Fordham was because other people that came before me donated enough to provide scholarship and financial aid funds. Most of the people I knew at Fordham got financial aid--enough that it enabled them to go to Fordham to begin with. This is my number one reason for giving back. I am attempting, and I hope I get there, to try and give half of the money I got from Fordham back over the next 20 years. It just seems only fair to me, because that money came from people who sacrificed to give before me. Do the math for yourself. Compare that with a $25 or even a $50 donation.
2. Don't complain if you don't vote. I'll say it here: If you just sit around and complain that you don't like something about the school, and you don't try to help the school with ideas and support, you're not helping. If you decide to give back... Don't give online. Don't send a check. Send a handwritten note directly to Fr. McShane with your check enclosed and ramble off a list of things you'd like him to do with your money and everyone else's money. Tell him if you don't see positive things coming from the school on the things that are important to you, you'll disappear into the woodwork again. A threat? Sure. But why not? Its your hard earned money. The school should listen to you and by sending a donation, you remind them that you're out there and that you'll support the school when you see it going in a positive direction. My friend Brian sent them a check when he read about all the expansion plans at Lincoln Center to show his support.
3. Fordham's ranking sucks because people don't give back. You've heard it all before, but its really true. National rankings for colleges weigh the percent of alumni that support the school very heavily. With a small investment every year, and a little more convincing your friends to do the same, you can actually make your degree worth more by bumping up that number. Don't let all these special giving levels deter you. ANY giving amount is enough. The people who want to give more will do that, but the really valuable giving means raising that number across the board. Think about it. Two years from now, if that giving number crosses 25%, its going to be all over the news and it will generate a lot of positive publicity for the school.... and for you and your degree.
4. Because it keeps you interested, like going to the gym because you're paying for it. Silly reason? Maybe not. I guarantee you that if you send Fordham a check every year, you're going to be happier when their incoming SATs go up, and more pissed when things go wrong. It just like making the decision to get your ass out of bed early each morning to go to the gym, if only because you don't want to waste the money you already paid on it. Financially contributing keeps you interested and you know what? You should be interested, active and involved. You have a lasting relationship with your school because the name of your degree will stay with you for the rest of your life. You should foster that relationship by staying in the loop on what's going on, offering your feedback, and keeping Fordham in mind when you hire people, recommend schools, etc.
5. And finally... because you'll blow that $25 on something stupid anyway. Why not contribute to something bigger than yourself? What do you spend your most wasted $25 on all year? You know what $25 is? Its, once every othera month, buying a girl a drink who is clearly not interested in you. Its taking, every other month, one wasteful cab-ride that you really should have walked, but you're always in a damned rush. Walk somewhere for once. Watch the people's faces as they walk by. Look up at the buildings. Think about where your life is going. That's more Jesuit than a cab ride. What is $25? For me, its 25 ill-conceived Fantasy Baseball player pickups. I will not pickup Mark Grudzielanek. I will hold on to Kevin Brown if it kills me. $25 is 5 coffee mocha latte thingys at Starbucks. Just get a green tea. Its healthy. It has anti-oxidents. Its cheaper. Save yourself. Support Fordham. Two birds. One stone. Thanks for your time.