The Transphobia of Fordham’s Dorm Policies
Fordham Observer.

By ARIA LOZANO Contributing Writer Here at the proud Jesuit institution of Fordham University, our administration is under the illusion that they can claim to “care for the whole person” while blatantly ignoring the needs of transgender and queer students. To the non-LGBTQ people reading this, it may feel like the Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) […]

The Transphobia of Fordham’s Dorm Policies
Fordham Observer.

The McKeon Elevator Epidemic
Fordham Observer.

Something must be done. It’s a seemingly easy fix, right? An open-and-shut case. Well, more like an open-and-shut, open-and-shut, open-and-shut… what was I talking about?

The McKeon Elevator Epidemic
Fordham Observer.

What was once an empty passage in the tunnel between McKeon Hall and the Leon Lowenstein Building now houses new Amazon lockers, replete with easy-access functions that let students skip the overflowing package room. Students at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus can ship nearly any product available on Amazon directly to the lockers, which are accessible 24 hours a day.

The process of ordering an item from Amazon is quite seamless, Courtney Brogle, Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, explained. “Instead of choosing home delivery or the address that would get [an item] sent to the package room, you basically choose ‘an Amazon locker near me,’” she said. “When it’s delivered, you’re sent a code to punch in, and it pops open the door. You grab your stuff and you’re good to go.”

The packages are available for pickup for three business days. Afterwards, they will be sent back to Amazon with a refund.

When McKeon Hall was built in addition to McMahon Hall to house more students, the mailroom never got an expansion. As a result, the volume of incoming packages doubled at the Lincoln Center Campus. These Amazon lockers helped to alleviate some of the resulting congestion in the package room.

While shortening the package room waiting time was not the main reason for installing the lockers, Fordham Vice President for Facilities Management Marco Valera noted that “The decision was spurred by the need to provide more options for receiving Amazon packages outside of the normal hours of the post offices on campus.”

“Over the years, we have seen an ever increasing number of Amazon packages being delivered to our students,” he continued. “When this option became available in New York City, we just thought it would be a good compliment to our normal post office hours.”

The use of Amazon lockers has become a growing phenomenon on college campuses. In addition to the Lincoln Center campus, Fordham Rose Hill, Columbia University and New York University use them, as well. Although he doesn’t foresee any new lockers coming to campus soon, Mr. Valera explained that the facilities department will continue to consult with Amazon. “At this time, we do not plan on new lockers, but will work with Amazon to review the use of the newly installed lockers.”

One additional benefit of the lockers, Valera explained, is that they were free to Fordham; Amazon covered the cost of installation. As a final nod to the lockers’ place as the newest characters on campus, they even came with an honorary Fordham nametag: “Hello, my name is RAM.”

Since the opening of the 150 W. 62nd St. building in 2011, students and faculty alike have been baffled by a strange air current in some of the ground level hallways that connect the buildings of the Lincoln Center campus. A recent satirical op-ed in The Observer speculated the possibilities, eventually attributing it to the proud stride of University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. Now, the community has a slightly more scientific answer.

The hallways in question connect 150 W. 62nd St. — which houses McKeon Hall and the Law School — to the 140 W. 62nd St. building, the Leon Lowenstein Building and McMahon Hall. Over the years, the community has dubbed them the “wind tunnels.” The effect is strongest in the hallways connecting the McKeon Hall and Law School lobby to the first floor of the 140 W. building — particularly in the tunnel closest to the former of the two buildings, which facilities workers call the Law School ramp.

John McDonagh, director of facilities operations at Lincoln Center, is aware of the phenomenon on the Law School ramp and has offered an explanation.

Operating a building, McDonagh explained, requires keeping it in a static pressure, meaning that the air being circulated must have a greater pressure than the resistance to the airflow in the building. At the Lincoln Center campus, the buildings are maintained to keep a positive pressure, a type of static pressure in which the indoor pressure in the system is greater than that of the atmosphere outdoors. This keeps the weather and wind where it is supposed to be: outside.

Any excess air, or “spill” air, follows the path of least resistance, resulting in that strange gust blowing through the connecting tunnels. This is the “wind tunnel” effect with which the Fordham community has been obsessed, especially first-year students in McKeon Hall, who frequently use the Law School ramp to get to class.

In the case of the 150 W. 62nd St. building, the lobby is especially large: The ceiling is high and the space is wide open. It therefore requires more air to achieve the desired effect of positive pressure. So, there is more excess air that spills into the tunnels.

McDonagh also pointed out that during the summer, more air is required to achieve positive pressure, so the “wind tunnel” effect is greater. During the winter the opposite is true, so while the current is still palpable, it is less intense.

At the moment, there are no plans to draft a solution to this quirk in the architecture — a serious blow to anti-“wind tunnel” students.

Walking from McKeon Hall to the Lowenstein Building, students can often feel a mysterious gust of wind pushing them down the “wind tunnels” ramp.  As it turns out, changes in air pressure, not a ghostly breeze, account for this.

The post Facilities Director Explains Eerie ‘Wind Tunnels’ appeared first on The Observer.

At the start of the academic year, McMahon Hall was overfilled with students, causing the Office of Residential Life to place freshmen in McMahon into forced triples. Yet the end of the first semester saw nearly 300 McMahon residents moving off campus.

At first, the new space seemed exciting for freshman students who spent the first semester in such close quarters with one another. However, this exodus raised concerns on how Residential Life relays information to and supports its freshman residents.

Vickki Massey, associate director for Housing Operations, explained that “it is normal to have partial apartments in the Spring semester as students withdraw from housing for multiple reasons.” She noted that in past years there has been an increase in students moving after only one semester, as more students have found alternative housing or chose to study abroad.

Aidan Rice, Gabelli School of Business (GSB) ’22, a freshman who shared a six-person suite with eight other students last semester, explained that “over break we found out that our rooms were being de-tripled after two of our suitemates moved out.”

Freshmen living in forced triples were given a reduced rate for the first semester, paying only $5912.50 per semester, compared to the regular $8262 fee. Now, with fewer residents, the price of housing increased for some students.

“We were never notified,” Rice said, “We only discovered it when my father happened to look at the bill for the next semester. There was no breakdown or explanation for the increase that was almost $2000.”

To note, upperclassmen whose roommates moved out at the end of the first semester did not experience a change in housing costs.  

Elena Jastrzembski, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, was also surprised to learn about the change in cost to her suite, which was de-tripled at the start of this semester. After learning about the increase, Jastrzembski said, “my mother began calling the school looking for answers, as they did not tell us about the increase or warn us.”

“My mother spoke to [Massey]” Jastrzembski continued, “and was given very little explanation or help.”

On Jan. 24, Jastrzembski received an email notifying her that a student would be moving into the apartment, effectively re-tripling the room. After a series of miscommunications, she realized that Residential Life had assumed that re-tripling the room would solve the issue of the price increase that her mother had complained about.

Jastrzembski said, “I do not understand why they [Residential Life] thought this would be a possible solution, or how they came to this conclusion,” since her original dissatisfaction was with the previous lack of communication.

With fewer students living in each room, Residential Life is also facing the challenge of removing extra furniture from their suites.

Vacant rooms led to increased housing rates in McMahon Hall. (AMINA VARGAS/THE OBSERVER)

Rice said that “coming back from break, I expected to find my room with one less bed, desk and dresser. Unfortunately, it took them more than one week to remove a bed. We still have extra dressers and tables.”

However, this wasn’t the case for Olivia Bonenfant, FCLC ’22, who shared a single room that was converted into a forced double with bunk beds last semester. After her roommate moved out, she said, “ResLife put in a work order to take away the furniture without communicating to me about it; the guys just showed up one morning completely out of the blue.”

Last semester, Bonenfant shared a three-person apartment with four other students. This semester, only two students remain. Bonenfant explained that when the student in the single bedroom moved out, Residential Life locked her old room. “ResLife never said anything to either me or my remaining roommate about any of this,” Bonenfant said.   

Although students expressed their frustration with the tight space last semester, the lack of communication from Residential Life this semester caused increased stress and confusion for many.

Rice said, “I believe that it’s quite unfair that the university does not show as much care for their students’ residential lives as they should.”

The Observer did not receive a comment from Housing Operations on de-tripling or notifying students of changes in housing costs.

The post Students Left Confused as ResLife De-Triples McMahon Hall appeared first on The Observer.

Two houses, both alike in dignity, hold the freshmen of Fordham Lincoln Center —  not that you’d know it. Like a great Shakespearean tragedy, the freshmen of McMahon Hall and McKeon Hall are unfairly kept apart, and there is one clear culprit: the university itself.

That’s right, dear readers. It is Fordham University that seeks to divide us, that leaves the plaza an uncrossable sea. Neither side knows the other. Worlds happen separately, untouched. All because of ResLife’s greatest weapon: the guest sign-in policy.

Oh, how we suffer under the weight of a security guard who wants nothing more than to go home for the day, writing out our names as we impatiently flash our IDs. The fact that we both belong to the same university means nothing to the swipe-in scanners, to the unforgiving glass doors blocking the McKeon elevators.

The sign-in policy is a tool designed to rip the freshman class in two.

Sure, they might let us lowly McMahon residents (and commuters) sign ourselves in without a host, but this concession was only a rumor when I first came to Fordham — even to the security guards. They either let me list myself as a host on the sign-in sheet with minimal harassment, or passive-aggressively shamed me away from their desk, sending me back to the dated carpets and popcorn ceilings of McMahon.

Once everything was said and done, we oppressed freshmen of McMahon were allowed to grant ourselves access to the hidden world of McKeon only during normal weekday business hours. And yet the oppression continues. You see, this strange thing happens where college students generally hang out on the weekends. We residents of McMahon Hall have no idea what goes on over there. Even if we did, we’re not rude. We’re not going to interrupt whatever you’re doing to make you come downstairs and sign us in, and we sure aren’t going to make you do the same thing at the end of the night when all you want to do is collapse into bed. We would never do you as dirty as ResLife does.

And as for us in McMahon — in another unpredictable phenomenon, when people are shoved into a room with a fully functioning kitchen and common room with five or more other people, they don’t have much reason to branch out and leave. Especially not with a McKeon sign-in policy that makes things as inconvenient as possible for everyone involved. And who in McKeon wants to trade gorgeous views and modern architecture for the best affordable dorm furniture of 1993?

Fordham University is trying to divide its freshman class. After Orientation and outside of class, there aren’t many ways the members of both houses of Fordham can run into each other; so what do you do during that interim time before you find your real friends — dare I say your Ramily — when signing you in to hang out in their room is a level of formality you just haven’t reached yet?

You suffer. That’s what you do. You binge a lot of Netflix shows. You hang out in your room in McMahon; you hang out on your floor in McKeon. You let our houses stay divided, and everybody knows a house divided cannot stand.

But the worst tragedy of all? In a mere three months, I will no longer care. My anger at my own oppression has already faded to begrudging acceptance. I used to wonder why no one fought to change things.

Now I know. We move on. We all move to McMahon. We forget about the inconvenient lengths we went the year before just to hang out with each other. And the new class of freshmen in McMahon will suffer on, flashing their IDs at the McKeon security desk in the face of an uncaring university.

The post McMahon Freshmen Oppression Must Lessen appeared first on The Observer.

The time: 9:30 p.m., Friday, March 15. The location: McKeon Hall. The problem: the chicken soup that I ordered for dinner had arrived.

My soup savior and delivery man, Jason from Uber Eats, arrived 15 minutes early and called my phone to let me know that he was waiting in the lobby. With only five minutes to reach the promised land before my delivery window timed out, I sprinted towards the elevators.

Like magic, its proud silver doors opened before me almost instantly. Fear not, I thought to myself, within mere seconds I will be holding the liquid gold that is chicken soup. I pressed the button for the first floor and waited to descend to my destiny.

Only it did not move. The button didn’t light up, and I did not hear the elevator begin its gentle journey to my soup.

I was befuddled, hurt, betrayed. The dining hall elevator I was situated in was supposed to close at 11 p.m. Here I was, an hour and a half early.

I had been lied to. Reality was an illusion. The very fabric of Fordham University was disappearing before my eyes. As the situation became clear, I realized that I would have to take the main lobby elevators. I shuddered as I stepped out and began my walk to the true Elevator from Hell.  

I say elevator, singular, because as of Friday, March 15 at 9:30 p.m., only one elevator was functioning on the lobby side of McKeon Hall. The other had been shut down for at least a week, with a flimsy sheet of paper posted nearby dooming everyone to an eternity of waiting.

Every time I needed to go to class, leave the building or do anything else that required me to use the lobby elevators, I found myself standing in the dance-themed lobby of floor 12 for hours. I would grow a beard and start to develop a curvature in my spine, reaching the ripe old age of 84 before I heard the signature ding telling me that finally, at last, the elevator had arrived.  I would look up, a smile gracing my now old and wrinkled face — only to see the elevator already full of students from higher floors. Crushed, I would retreat into the darkness.

The cursed night of the soup saga is one I will never forget. I want to say that the elevator miraculously appeared, that I got onto it in time and held my soup up high for all to see. But it didn’t come.

I tried to vault myself down the stairs, skipping step after step but alas. I arrived mere minutes after Jason from Uber Eats had departed. As I collapsed in the lobby, crying on the floor in the fetal position about that devastatingly cold chicken soup without anyone to love it, I knew that there had to be a better way.

So now I ask Fordham: why is the freshman student body saddled with elevators that constantly break, when McKeon Hall was built in 2014?  

Even my old public school, which had less funding than the last remaining BlockBuster, had an elevator (albeit with questionable graffiti) that did not break this often.

Is one student dead set on breaking an elevator every Friday night to continue tormenting their innocent peers? Is this Fordham’s way of subtly encouraging us to take the stairs more often? Either way, it needs to stop.

Unless the school is about to introduce a way to teleport from our dorms to the lobby, something needs to be done. Not one more soup should go cold into the night because of a faulty elevator. Not one more.

The post Elevator Mayhem: My Scandalous Soup Saga appeared first on The Observer.

The 2018-2019 academic year has seen multiple incidents strain the relationship between Fordham’s Office of Residential Life and its students who choose to live in McMahon and McKeon Halls. As the academic year comes to a close, resident assistants (RAs) and resident freshman mentors (RFMs) are voicing their own concerns about working under Residential Life. The hostile working environment, lack of communication and poor treatment of staff has resulted in students feeling the need to highlight the reality of their experiences working for Residential Life.

Although it is not stated explicitly in their contracts, student staff are discouraged from talking to the press. RAs confirmed that they are expected to “act as representatives” for the office and felt that speaking out against Residential Life might result in serious consequences, even losing their jobs. Consequently, all six interviews given to The Observer were anonymous.

Most RAs and RFMs are dependant on the perks of their positions. For every term, they sign a yearlong contract with Residential Life. RAs receive a $1,050 “RA Tuition award” and are given a free room for the academic year. In McMahon, RAs are given a meal check, and in McKeon, both RAs and RFMs have a full meal plan for the year. All RFMs reside in McKeon Hall, and pay for only one semester of housing. On average, students can save nearly $20,000 per academic year by becoming an RA.

“We depend on the job for the benefits,” one RFM said, emphasizing just how much money student staff save because of their positions.

Yet some RAs and RFMs have said that Residential Life takes advantage of this financial dependency. “This is the only job on campus that will pay for your housing and your meal plan … it’s not like you can go and get another RA position,” one RA said. “It’s a lot of money that they’re playing around with, and to wave that around on a stick in front of someone, to make that person feel like they’re never safe, it can be really tough.”

The contract specifies that violations of the contract will result in immediate termination of student staff. In that situation, adjustments would be made to the student’s bursar account, and all Office property would need to be returned. “They hold so much power over our living situation that even right now, we only have two weeks left, but if they told me I had to get out, I’d have to get out right now,” another RA said.

Student staff believe that the tone of Residential Life’s management has created a hostile and uncomfortable working culture. At an in-service staff meeting in February, Kelly Sosa, assistant director for the office of residential life, allegedly said that she would rather have fewer staff members than have people who break — or are merely confused by — the rules.One RA said that Sosa’s sentiment “felt threatening, and like she had no issue firing people.” Another RA said: “During the meeting, she spoke down to the McKeon staff as a whole, and I felt as though she was talking to us as children rather than as RAs and RFMs.”

Although the position of an RA or RFM is very demanding and requires a high degree of responsibility, student staff who spoke to The Observer reported feeling expendable to the office.

“There have been times when our supervisors only focus on the things that staff members had done wrong,” another RFM said. “Sometimes we feel underappreciated.”

“The trust just isn’t there,” explained an RA. “There is no job security because it feels like they are only going to keep us on until they find something and then threaten us to leave.”

One RA said that “as soon as you have one strike you get looked at more closely and you feel like you’ve suddenly become a target.”

According to reports from student staff, anxiety runs high for anyone holding a position with the office, citing how their contracts are often unclear. According to one RA, “there is a disparity between what is in the contract and the things that they say.”

RAs are required to serve an on-call rotation as either primary or secondary RA on duty. The contract does little to clarify the difference between the positions, and states that students can face probation or even termination for leaving campus while on duty.

However, during their training sessions in August 2018, staff members were told that the secondary RA on duty was allowed to leave the building within a “five-minute radius” of campus. But according to RAs, professional staff told them that “five minutes is different to everyone,” making the policy vague and confusing to follow.

During the fall semester, some RAs on secondary duty left campus, believing they were following the rules and encountering little to no issues. However, in the second semester, secondary RAs were reprimanded for not being on campus. Students explained that these incidents were handled on a “case-by-case basis.”

In response to the incidents, Residential Life made it clear to student staff that both primary and secondary RAs must be on campus for the entirety of their duty. Staff members did not receive updated contracts to reflect this, they said.

After the change was made, Sosa allegedly told student staff that if they have problems with the changes, then they could “schedule an exit interview.”

One RA explained that they were leaving campus because “there was no clear leadership, and we were confused.”

There are other examples of changes being made to the contracts over the years, including policies on romantic relationships between student staff and submitting duty reports.

Over the last two years, Residential Life allegedly fired two student staff members mid-semester. “It’s ridiculous; people are not being treated well,” one RA said.

Student staff also expressed they feel there is a significant double standard between the level of dedication and professionalism expected of them and how they are treated by Residential Life staff.

While student staff feel that “each of our actions can have serious consequences,” they feel that professional staff do not lead by example.

As part of their contract, RAs and RFMs must meet with their Residential Directors (RDs) on a biweekly basis — yet student staff report that RDs often cancel meetings for personal reasons. “I cannot imagine what would happen if I said I could not make a meeting,” said one RA, believing that they would get in trouble for not following the demands of the contract.

Students also claim there is a double standard to the way contracts are enforced. During the summer training sessions, student staff were told they will be given a $200 “meal check” to cover eating expenses for the duration of the program. However, RAs and RFMs confirmed that they received these checks over a week after training had ended.

Likewise, RAs have raised concerns about not being reimbursed for the programs that they must plan for their residents; they claim often needing to wait up to four weeks before being reimbursed.

“It’s hard to plan an enjoyable and thoughtful event when you have to pay for it yourself,” one RA said. They said the lack of funds can create friction between staff members, as one student often needs to front the money.

Since staff members believe that they could get in trouble for speaking out, feel like there are no available platforms to voice their dissatisfaction. “It’s always hard to give feedback to your boss,” said another RA. “But in the position that we are in, it’s even harder.”

RDs and professional staff offer feedback surveys to student staff, and although they are anonymous, they require students to write whose staff they are on and what role they have. One RA said this makes it “easy for them to pinpoint who we are, even without our names.”

Students feel they have no one to advocate for them — “we don’t have a human resources in this role,” stated an RA.

One RA said, “Do I feel cared for by the department? No, not at all.”

“It makes you feel like you can’t trust anyone,” said another. “It’s affecting my social life and my personal life… It makes me feel like I need to whole up in my room and not talk.”

The Observer reached out to all members of The Office of Residential Life mentioned in the story. They declined to comment at this time.

The post RAs Reveal the Reality of Working for ResLife appeared first on The Observer.

You are a senior in high school, struggling under the crushing weight of college applications. Life seems drab and miserable until one day you hear the good news: you were accepted into Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. 

Flash forward months later, and you are attending an Accepted Students Day. Crowds of hopeful freshmen walk slowly down the halls, taking in every aspect of the school and anxiously conversing with faculty and current students. 

Finally, you reach the best part of the day: the dorm tour. 

You almost can’t believe your eyes. The McKeon dorms are gorgeous shrines to the beauty of the NYC skyline. They give you a glimpse into the city life of which you always dreamt. 

Then, during the summer comes the bad news: You were placed in McMahon Hall as a freshman. 

Also, you have eight roommates.

While this discovery was overwhelming at first, take heart: Being placed in a forced triple as a freshman has been single-handedly the best possible aspect of my experience at Fordham so far.

My roommates and I instantly acclimated to the unique challenges of living together. As McMahon residents, we were not required to have a meal plan, which meant that we ventured on shopping trips together and held roommate dinners almost every night. In our small, domestic apartment, we became friends and companions — an invaluable asset the first few weeks of freshman year.

While we certainly have missed the benefits of McKeon (of which there are many), we have grown to view our space as a home, and each other as a quasi-family. Just like that, our freshman fears of loneliness and isolation vanished. No matter what we were doing or where we were going, we had each other to lean on and sympathize with. 

Additionally, the sheer size of our apartment allowed us all to mingle with each other and become friends when we normally wouldn’t have crossed paths. With seven distinctly different majors, the shared apartment space allowed us to build a diverse and inclusive community. We are able to both celebrate new cultures and introduce each other to our own traditions. Whether we venture into Flushing to eat at a hot pot restaurant or set up pallets of blankets to watch our favorite movies, we introduce ourselves to each other by sharing what we love. 

Being a freshman in McKeon is a classic Fordham experience, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best one. The smaller dorms and varying cultures of every floor at McKeon can lead to an air of exclusion and isolation, especially if one doesn’t get along with their roommate(s). 

At McMahon, this sense of separation is nonexistent because students live close to one another and share the same gyms, laundry rooms and lounges. Although McMahon has its downfalls, it undoubtedly fosters a stronger sense of community and friendship, attributes that incoming freshmen can’t help but appreciate. 

While gaining access to McKeon can only be classified as a huge hassle, this inconvenience is often circumvented by meeting in shared social spaces, such as the Ram Cafe or the student lounges. Friends from classes will often sign you in, and brand new stickers from ResLife also give you access to McKeon’s social events and lounges. Late night shenanigans at McKeon might be off-limits to McMahon freshmen, but there are plenty of entertaining student experiences in McMahon as well. Just a glance at some of the signs pasted on the windows will prove that. 

McMahon may seem like the ugly stepsister in comparison to McKeon’s fair maiden, but the truth is much more complex than that. McMahon, despite its lackluster reputation, provides freshmen with a domestic experience that gives them not just a dorm, but a home. 

Even though I have only lived in McMahon for a few weeks, I can’t wait for what the future has to hold. With Thanksgiving and Christmas parties already planned and birthdays coming up soon, I have no doubt that my roommates and I will foster an even closer community in the months to come.

I cringed when I saw my freshman year roommate assignment, already picturing the chaos of living and interacting with so many people. Looking back at it now, only three weeks into my stay at Fordham, I wouldn’t change a thing. 

The post The Hidden Benefits of Being a Freshman in McMahon Hall appeared first on The Observer.