McKeon Hall Archives - The Observer

As commuter students have likely noticed, the Office of Student Leadership and Development (OSLCD) policy of providing hard copy newspapers outside of the office of student affairs room 408 has stopped, while McMahon residents continue to receive hard copies of The New York Times.

Additionally, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) resident students have access to hard copies of The Wall Street Journal, which was offered via free subscription during the beginning of the year to students in the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) and continues to be mistakenly delivered McMahon Hall instead of McKeon Hall, where all resident business students at Lincoln Center reside.

Delivery and receival issues have troubled both of the hard copy newspapers, according to Keith Eldredge, dean of students at FCLC, leading to a push for digital subscriptions to both of the papers.

In past years, there have been many problems keeping The New York Times hard copies exclusive to undergraduates, according to Eldredge. “One of the things that we noticed that it was challenging to have the newspapers outside of 408 and keep them exclusive to commuting students … we would see employees, faculty and administrators picking up the newspapers,” he said.

As a result, the hard copies outside of 408 were removed in favor of an online subscription program, marketed specifically toward commuter students. “We tried to encourage this program for commuters at commuter orientation and in the newsletter … it’s not something we’d announce at resident floor meetings per se,” Eldridge continued. “Residents are welcome to use the online passes if they wish.”

As a result of this new program, hard copy subscription numbers have been cut in half. “We have around 80 [hard copy] newspapers delivered to McMahon … in previous years, it was around 160, 80 in McMahon and another 80 outside of 408,” Eldridge continued. “We purchased additional online subscriptions this year as well to compensate for the change.”

According to the New York Times website, “Colleges that purchase bulk newspaper copies for a New York Times daily readership program receive a number of NYTimes.com Academic Passes at no additional charge.”

“We were already receiving an equivalent number of digital subscriptions with the paper subscriptions,” Eldredge said.

Eldredge explained the digital copies as a kind of daily pass system, where users log in and “take a digital pass for the day, then 24 hours later you have to do it all over again … if 160 people logged in every day, there’d be a chance of being blocked out in theory, if 160 people logged in at the same time,” he said. “However we’ve come nowhere near close to maxing that out.”

In regards to The Wall Street Journal deliveries, Rev. Vincent DeCola, S.J. and assistant dean of Global Business at Lincoln Center, said, “I had to send out an email offering the online only editions, since we were having issues with the print editions’ delivery.”

Caroline Stewart, GSBLC ’18, explained how the process of physical delivery of The Wall Street Journal led to her cancelling her subscription. She said, “First it was getting delivered to McMahon and I wasn’t getting it [at all].” She then recounted that it was delivered to the mailroom where “it would stuff up and block our mailboxes,” she said.

Stewart continued, “We started getting notified by the package room like they were packages, but they would be old editions.” This ultimately let to Stewart canceling her print subscription.

The post NY Times Access Scales Back for Commuters appeared first on The Observer.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s (FCLC) College Council met to discuss multiple topics, including the approved motion for simultaneous registration between FCLC and Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH). Registration will tentatively begin for both campuses on March 23, the day classes resume following spring break, according to Rev. Robert Grimes, S.J., dean of FCLC.

Robert Moniot, associate dean of FCLC, said “IT has prepared for the possibility of 2400 simultaneous logins … the main issue has been, according to IT, that students are logging in multiple times on different computers and laptops.”

Grimes acknowledged the difficulty of having students comply with being asked to not register early. “We asked students not to register for classes [at Rose Hill] when they weren’t allowed to, but they went and registered anyway.”

Gwenyth Jackaway, associate chair of the communication and media studies program at FCLC, raised a concern among her faculty “that academic advising would be taking place during midterms … this seems like it would be really stressful.” Grimes agreed, and while “midterms have not been officially rescheduled, you can ‘play it by ear’ and use discretion in scheduling exams,” he said. “But grades are necessary for advising purposes.”

For rising seniors, registration dates have been split into two days. Seniors with 83 or more credits will be able to register on March 23, while seniors with 60 or more credits may register the following day. These dates and credits are subject to change.

Other topics included a poor response rate for the electronic Summary of the Students’ Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQs). “For some of the more popular majors, the response rate is hovering around 50 percent, which is nothing to champion,” Grimes said.

“Past SEEQs results are available online for students, however I’m not sure where,” Grimes continued.

Jackaway agreed, she said “I wasn’t even aware they are available online for students to look at.”

Past SEEQs results are available online, through the MyFiles feature of my.fordham.edu. However, there has not been any recent attempt to publicize this, as there has been in the past.

Leighton Magoon, FCLC ’17 and treasurer of United Student Government (USG), asked “Maybe professors or the administration could email us a link to past SEEQs … it probably be a little better than RateMyProfessor if it’s publicized enough.”

The final major order of business was a proposal from Dean Grimes on the future of First Year Experience (FYE) and how it may be restructured completely in the next few years.

“The idea would be that Eloquentia Perfecta I [EP1] would be separated entirely from freshman academic advising … and that freshman advising itself would become a one credit class.”

FYE’s restructuring comes from the introduction of McKeon Residence Hall to FCLC. “McKeon was designed to solve the problems of resident students hiding in the ‘fortress’ of McMahon,” Grimes said. “As a result, the integration of freshman commuters and residents is not a much of a problem anymore, and [FYE] is designed to fix an issue that isn’t really there, because of McKeon.”

The post College Council Talks Registration, SEEQ Decrease and FYE appeared first on The Observer.

Drug abuse violations and liquor law violations both increased at Fordham in 2015, according to the 2016–2017 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.

The report, which follows calendar years rather than academic years, shows that drug abuse violations increased from 26 to 34 violations from 2014 to 2015. In the same time period, liquor law violations increased from 96 to 119 violations.

Comparatively, there were 19 drug abuse violations and 127 liquor law violations in 2013. The violations in the three years all occurred in the residence halls on campus. The other two areas where the violations could have occured were non—campus property and public property.

The increase in violations, particularly those involving alcohol, occurred because “we had a couple of unusual things happen after McKeon Hall opened” in 2014, Dean of Students Keith Eldredge said.

He said that the increase in students living on campus in a more traditional style of residence hall contributed to an elevated sense of community. “And a lot of that was in real positive ways, but a lot of that was in ways where people got together and drank alcohol or got together and did drugs,” he added.

Eldredge said that the most unusual thing that occurred during the 2014–15 academic year was an increase in liquor law violations in the spring semester when compared to the fall semester.

“We usually see more alcohol and drug violations in the fall semester,” he explained. “And most of those violations in both of those categories are by freshmen.”

“That first year, we saw that reversed for the first time in a number of years,” he continued. “So you take a high spring semester combined with a normally high fall semester and that’s a big chunk of the reason why 2015 is significantly higher than 2014.”

The Class of 2018, who were freshmen during this period, were also partially responsible for the tripling in hospitalizations of Fordham students for alcohol consumption in December of 2014. As of Dec. 10, 2014, 13 of the 16 students who were evaluated by Fordham staff after being visibly intoxicated were members of the 2018 class.

Eldredge said that the number of drug and alcohol violations in the fall of 2015 were comparable to that of 2014. Additionally, the number of violations in spring 2016, while not included in the report, were lower than the number in fall 2015.

To address the unexpected rise in violations in spring 2015, Eldredge said that both the Student Involvement and Residential Life staff took steps to ensure the effectiveness of Orientation, Alcohol Edu, floor meetings, the training of RAs and Resident Directors, and sanctioning guidelines. Jenifer Campbell, director of Residential Life at Fordham Lincoln Center and a Public Safety supervisor, spoke with resident freshmen on their first night about the University’s expectations and policies regarding alcohol and drug usage.

Eldredge said that almost all of the drug abuse violations were for marijuana.

Campbell said, “We do a lot of outreach to students in terms of conversations around harm reduction, because we don’t necessarily believe that all students are going to abide by the laws and regulations of New York State,” regarding alcohol and drug use on campus.

“We’re not foolish enough to think that we can just ignore it,” she continued.

Drug and alcohol usage, however, is not as common as students it is. According to the 2015 Core Alcohol and Drug Survey conducted on the Lincoln Center Campus in spring 2015, 33 percent of Fordham students reported consuming alcohol once a week or more, while Fordham students perceived that 81.3 percent of their classmates consumed alcohol once a week or more.

In response to the increase in drug and alcohol violations, both Eldredge and Campbell pointed to the university’s new “LC After Dark” initiative, which began last year.

“We acknowledge that for some students, maybe they’re connected to drugs or alcohol because they perceive that there’s nothing else to do,” Eldredge said.

As a result, Residential Life and Student Involvement planned events both in the residence halls and in other venues at night for students.

“There’s lots and lots of different reasons why students drink and do drugs so we’re trying to hit it from different approaches,” Eldredge said.

Campbell believes that addressing alcohol and drug use on campus is an “ever-evolving situation.”

“I think ideally for me it’s always what can we do to engage a student in their interests so that there are other things they can do besides alcohol, drugs and those types of activities,” she said.

Eldredge said that with these violations, particularly among freshmen, there’s ultimately “a bunch of 18-year-olds where it’s their first time away from home.”

“There’s going to be those issues of experimentation,” he said. “We’re never going to get zero violations.”

The post Substance Violations Up, Report Says appeared first on The Observer.

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) community is tolerant and open, but that is only the case if you ignore the administration’s outright disregard for the safety and well-being of transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) students.

Fordham’s administration refuses to institute changes that are crucial for TGNC people to thrive as members of the community, including gender-inclusive bathroom signage and a preferred name policy. Furthermore, the administration bolsters its regressive and harmful guest pass policy instead of listening to the large percentage of FLC students who support the revised policy proposal created by the Residence Hall Association (RHA).

But for me, Fordham’s most painful and hateful policy is its discriminatory housing, which ignores individual students’ gender identities and assigns roommates based upon legal sex on one’s birth certificate.

My first encounter with Fordham’s bigoted policies happened before I even started my first semester here. Roommate selection is an anxious process for many of us, but it was especially scary for me because I was afraid of being placed in a room with males. Since I was still ignorant of the administration’s complete disrespect for trans people, I contacted Residential Life hoping to room with other girls. After some tedious back-and-forth emails, LC Residential Life Director Jenifer Campbell told me over the phone that I could not have a female roommate because Fordham assigns rooms based on legal sex. After the initial shock of discovering that Fordham would not recognize my gender identity, I tried to negotiate. I thought that I wouldn’t have to live with men if I found some female students who wanted to room with me, which I did. But again I was denied for the same reason. I then asked if there were other transgirls who needed a roommate, but Director Campbell said there were none. With no other options, I just gave up. When I got to campus, I felt socially isolated and like no one at Fordham cared how difficult it was for me to share a bedroom with a man, and a bathroom with two other men.

While already suffering under the administration’s utter disregard for my emotional well-being, I now had to actually live with a man whom I did not know whatsoever. Since our initial awkward introductions, we have not talked at all. I am so uncomfortable with my living situation that I can’t even come out to him, and for the entire first semester, I felt the need to hide anything that seemed “feminine” out of fear, anxiety and shame. But my social problems obviously extended outside the bedroom as well. Because of this immediate experience of intolerance at Fordham, I was scared to come out of the closet. I went to university hopeful that I could be myself, but now I was afraid and paranoid that my peers, professors and others in the community would also reject and shun me. Feeling that I did not belong, I isolated myself from my peers, damaging not just my social life but also my mental health, which was already plagued with the anxiety, depression and suicidality that are so prevalent among the TGNC community.

Eventually, as the stress of remaining in the closet kept growing, I pushed myself to awkwardly come out to the people to whom the university had introduced me with my deadname and wrong gender. My peers were generally accepting of me, yet that in no way compensated for the alienation I still had to endure every day in my dorm.

Hoping for change at the university, I discovered The Positive, a student organization here at Fordham fighting for gender inclusivity on campus. I promptly joined, and immediately lost all hope upon learning the true extent of the institutional transphobia entrenched in the administration. Fordham staunchly adheres to the Catholic doctrine recognizing only two genders defined solely by sex, which has been reiterated by administrators such as Keith Eldridge, our dean of students. I know that it is important to hold onto some hope that things can change, which will only happen through student unity and direct action; however, having to fight the university’s bigoted policies while simultaneously enduring those policies has taken a large toll on my mental health. Because of atrocious policies at Fordham, I feel like I do not belong here on campus, and that I must either transfer out or, at the very least, find off-campus housing.

Regardless of what I end up doing for myself, these policies will continue to harm students unless real change in the administration occurs. Until this happens, more and more transgender and queer students will come to Fordham only to be disregarded and erased from campus. Fordham executives, how hard can it be to change your policies to recognize us, to accommodate for our basic needs or to make any effort to improve the wellbeing of TGNC people at Fordham? Based on your complete apathy towards our experiences, I can tell that, for whatever reason, you would much rather have us feel isolated, ignored and unvalued.

Had I known all of this last year, I would not have even considered attending this university. Fordham may have given me their letter of acceptance, but they only accepted “me” as the 4.0 GPA, the 36 ACT score and the 5s on AP exams. They never accepted the real me, someone whose very existence is somehow incompatible with Fordham’s Jesuit identity: the me named Aria.

The post The Transphobia of Fordham’s Dorm Policies appeared first on The Observer.

I’m going to be honest: my Monday mornings aren’t great. I have an 8:30 a.m. class every day, so I’m forced to wake up early. I roll out of bed at 8:15 a.m., throw on some clothes, brush my teeth and pack my folders for class. I haven’t eaten anything, but it’s 8:20 a.m. I have plenty of time to get to my class, though, right?

Nope. The elevators don’t want to cooperate today. Again.

A strange and recurring issue for Fordham University freshmen lies with the McKeon Hall elevators. The elevator doors refuse to close the first time without fail. Sometimes they just won’t close at all. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think these elevators have dedicated themselves to becoming the bane of my existence. Ask anyone: the demonic monotone voice of the Elevator Lady will follow you into your worst nightmares. We’re a Catholic school, and our elevators need an exorcism.

This issue has only been present in McKeon Hall. The Lowenstein, Law School and McMahon elevators work just fine, even when filled to capacity. I’m a seasoned elevator rider, and never have I seen students jumping up and down, tampering with the electronics or throwing a huge Welcome Week party in the elevators. Surely it can’t be the freshman residents’ faults. Patient Zero in the Elevator Epidemic is the elevators themselves.

Assuming that the school is aware of the elevator malfunctions, one would think that there would be something done to fix them. They’re not that old, so why should they experience weekly breakdowns? That’s the students’ job. 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?

Instead of any proactive measures, the only real administrative action has been the strategic placement of laminated signs in the McKeon lobby—signs to remind students how to use elevators correctly. As I had forgotten that I was five years old and had no idea how to read, push buttons or stand still for prolonged periods of time, this was a big help to me.

According to these laminated edicts of elevator etiquette, each elevator is recommended to hold 15 people at most. Naturally, students carrying backpacks with three or more textbooks count as two people and are encouraged to take a separate elevator. If the elevator that comes to you is full, you have to wait again for the next one. Unless, of course, you’re a fan of unscheduled stops between the 21st and 22nd floors as the loudspeaker berates you for your foolishness. Even when following those instructions, riders can expect to hear that godforsaken “going down” a hundred times before the doors finally close. It really is only going down from here.

This issue has led many students, myself included, to become concerned for their safety. If an elevator were to stop working entirely mid-ride, students’ lives could be in danger. Plummeting down an elevator shaft isn’t exactly on the top of my to-do list. The fact that we even have to worry about that is scary in itself, and the dangers don’t end there. Beware of sudden and prolonged stops, but please don’t bang on the doors too loudly. The elevators are sensitive.

An unrelenting frustration has prevailed over Fordham’s freshmen. These elevators make students late to class. And I hate to say it, but honestly, if anyone thinks they’re going to walk twenty flights of stairs to get to the lobby, they’re very wrong. Unless there’s a fire. Honestly, maybe not even then.

This elevator epidemic has been an unnecessary frustration, and it must end. Students should not be worrying about being late to class or meeting their imminent doom in McKeon Hall, just because of a few disobedient elevators. We have other things to worry about, like midterms, student debt and just generally being alive. Your calves can only get so big from climbing the stairs before your pants start to get too tight.

To the elevators of McKeon: it’s a painful experience watching you decide whether or not you want to shut. People have places to be and people to see. I’m tired of your incessant voice and fear of commitment. It’s not me. It’s you. I really need to get to class, and this is the hundredth time you’ve done this.

Open or close. Please, just make up your mind already.

The post The McKeon Elevator Epidemic appeared first on The 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.”

The post Amazon Lockers Upgrade Fordham’s Package Delivery Services appeared first on The Observer.

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.

Students who started college in fall 2020 were in the unique position of beginning college during a pandemic. Hear firsthand from two Fordham Lincoln Center first-years about their initial experiences — including the highs, the lows and their plans for future semesters.

This video was edited by Alison Ettinger-DeLong.

The post Freshmen Reflect on Their First Semester of College During A Pandemic appeared first on The Observer.

Student involvement on campus has changed drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic, and fostering community is significantly more difficult.

Attendance at on-campus events varies, Associate Director for Student Involvement Christina Frankovic said. “Some events have been completely sold out with a waitlist, and others have only had a small handful of attendees,” Frankovic said.

Virtual events are receiving fluctuating attendance too; Frankovic said for some virtual club meetings, up to 60 students will attend, while other clubs report only “a few dedicated students” at each meeting.

Because arts and crafts programs have attracted more students, the Office for Student Involvement has made an effort to offer more of these types of events, according to Frankovic.

“The on-campus events don’t do much to cultivate community; it’s hard to do on a campus like this one.” Lily Carlisle, FCLC ’24

Putting on previously successful events has not been successful in getting all students involved in on-campus life and feeling the spirit of community. “I haven’t attended any events on campus,” Sophia Pellillo, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’24, said. “I’m transferring next year and have decided to not attend any events and don’t really see the point or want to get involved in campus life since I’m not staying.”

Fordham’s retention rate has been declining in recent years, and the incoming first-year class in the fall of 2020 was Fordham’s smallest entering class since 2013.

Students who are not transferring are also electing to not attend campus events. “The on-campus events don’t do much to cultivate community; it’s hard to do on a campus like this one,” Lily Carlisle, FCLC ’24, said. “The community here is built on friend groups rather than event gatherings, where most people are there for free things.”

Alyssa Witvoet, FCLC ’24, has attended several events on campus but does not feel that they have met many people through the events. Witvoet said they only go to events when there is free food or activities involved, or to support a friend who organized an event. “I go to less events now than I did last semester, because I don’t meet people much due to social distancing,” Witvoet said. “I don’t know what things were like pre-COVID, but I think COVID makes it much harder.”

This change in attendance seems to be largely due to COVID-19, where social distancing prevents overcrowded tables and socializing with other students. Students report previous years’ events as bustling, full and loud with hardly enough room for attendees.

Witvoet and Carlisle both expressed that they have felt a strong bond on their floor in McKeon Hall, thanks in part to their residential assistants (RAs). “My floor has a good sense of community, because of our RA, Marley,” Witvoet said. “She acts like our friend and is very chatty and friendly, and hosts more casual events.” Carlisle added that “Marley wants us to hang out and eat snacks, like a friend.”

Yusuf ElMenshawy, FCLC ’22, is the RA for floor 16 in McKeon Hall. He described efforts to organize events that would attract students to come. “As an RA I and every other member of student staff have been students before and a lot of the times we try and make programs that we would want to actually go to,” ElMenshawy said. “Along with Fordham’s guidance about what each event should be about, it’s more important to actually include parts of the event that are easy for people to see and say ‘I want to go to that.’”

“We are very much looking forward to continuing that through the end of this semester and into the fall when we’ll be able to support even more club programming back on campus.” Christina Frankovic, associate director for student involvement

Community building at Lincoln Center is largely centered around interactions and events put on in the comfort of a dorm hallway or lounge. ElMenshawy said that about one-half of a McKeon floor’s residents will come to community builder events, about 10 come to first-year events and about 30 come to the big late-night events, such as Saturday Night Live at McKeon Hall, to which the entire dorm was invited to attend.

Frankovic is hopeful for the rest of the spring semester, as her office continues to plan events.

“While things didn’t look the same, and realistically we likely could not reach all of the students we would have liked to, I think there were many students who were able to find connections and have meaningful experiences and maybe even a little bit of safe fun through it all,” Frankovic said. “We are very much looking forward to continuing that through the end of this semester and into the fall when we’ll be able to support even more club programming back on campus.”

The post Fordham On-Campus Events Fail to Foster Community appeared first on The Observer.

Update, Sept. 19: Edited to add statements from Jenifer Campbell, director of residential life.

In anticipation for the fully in-person fall 2021 semester, first-year residents reported receiving their housing assignments two weeks later than anticipated and poor communication and unresponsiveness from the Office of Residential Life (ResLife).

Jenifer Campbell, director of residential life, said the assignment of first-year students to housing was “ongoing through opening”of the fall semester.

Several first-year residents who completed their housing applications expected to receive their assignments at the beginning of August but received no communication from ResLife until mid-to-late August.

Lydia Williams, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’25, completed her housing application weeks before the deadline and chose to be randomly assigned a roommate; she did not receive any confirmation email.

Students who selected roommates ahead of time were instructed to form a group on the application; however, the housing portal crashed. A Google Form to create roommate groups was introduced instead.

Emma Burden, FCLC ’25, explained that she selected her roommate ahead of time. When she attempted to create a roommate group, the application would not allow her to do so.

“I emailed ResLife and they emailed me back with a Google Form at 11pm in June, they never emailed my intended roommate and I had to send it to my roommate,” she said.

ResLife did not announce when housing assignments would be released. They only specified that assignments would be sent out in early August. Williams explained that many first-years interpreted this period to fall within the first week of August; instead, students began to receive their assignments on Aug. 12, with the rest arriving in the last two weeks of August.

Williams noted numerous and lengthy phone calls with ResLife. She received her housing assignment shortly after contacting the office directly, with other students receiving theirs on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27.

“The person I spoke to wasn’t very sympathetic to my questions.” Delaney Schwantes, FCLC ’25

“After calling ResLife at least three or four times and sitting on hold for nearly 45 minutes, I was told my assignment over the phone and my email was sent immediately following that call, which took place on August 20,” Williams said.

Move-in for all first-year residents was on Aug. 29, only two days after some students received their assignments.

Due to the historic class size of incoming first-year students, 236 first-year students were assigned to McMahon Hall for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Delaney Schwantes, FCLC ’25, echoed a similar experience with ResLife. Schwantes called twice and during one of the calls, ResLife informed her that housing assignments will circulate later than originally scheduled.

“The person I spoke to wasn’t very sympathetic to my questions,” she said.

Schwantes ultimately received her housing assignment on Aug. 18.

for an article about housing, first-year students gather at orientation wearing Ram Fan 25 shirts — Some first-year students did not receive their housing assignments until two days before move-in. (ANDREW DRESSNER)

Not all first-years had the same troubling experiences with ResLife. Stella Rose, FCLC ’25, shared that her experience was positive. Rose expressed initial concerns when submitting her application. Rose explained her apprehension with completing applications alone and accidentally excluding information, attributing her anxieties to a lack of communication on behalf of the university and unclear directions.

“Fordham was very helpful, though, when I had ResLife inquiries. They were concise and quick to respond to my questions,” Rose said.

Williams noted that the delay in her housing assignment prevented her from gathering necessary dorm items with her roommate. She communicated that increased transparency and clarity from ResLife would have been appreciated. She added that the process of receiving her housing assignment was disheartening and insufficient.

“I think all the freshmen are excited to be here and are appreciative to have a dorm to call home for the year, but the stress that was applied upon families is wildly disappointing.” Lydia Williams, FCLC ’25

“I think all the freshmen are excited to be here and are appreciative to have a dorm to call home for the year, but the stress that was applied upon families is wildly disappointing,” Williams said.

Students have reported issues with ResLife’s communicativeness, quarantining conditions and gender inclusivity in the past.

The post First-Year Students Frustrated With Delayed Housing Assignments appeared first on The Observer.

The Class of 2025 is the biggest first-year class Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) has ever had — and it’s coming at a time when overcrowding is a dangerous problem.

Colleges usually admit more students than they expect to enroll, a decision based on enrollment predictions. Each year, Fordham typically admits around 20,000 students and just over 2,000 usually enroll. This year, the over-acceptance backfired as more students than expected enrolled.

Even if the Office of Undergraduate Admission corrects this over-acceptance for next year and goes back to the average amount of incoming students, problems will still persist. For reference, the average class size in previous years for FLC was between 600 and 700 students. This year, it was over 1,000.

Some problems, such as housing and classroom assignments, are already evident, but unless Fordham plans to expand its real estate, adding more residence halls and classrooms, more issues with spacing and academics will become apparent. Fordham needs to refrain from over-accepting students, especially when space is at a premium for social distancing measures.

The most noticeable problem is housing, as Fordham struggled to fit everyone in just two residence halls this year. Unlike previous years, when first-years only took up one to two floors in McMahon, this year’s class took up six, with a few more scattered on other floors. This occurred even with more upperclassmen moving off-campus to take advantage of lower rent prices across the city due to COVID-19.

While there have previously been issues fitting everyone on campus — for example, some McMahon suites had up to nine in them during previous years — it has never been quite this bad. Some first-year students only received their housing assignments the week leading up to move-in, making an already nerve-wracking transition even more difficult.

Even more important than a lack of space, more students mean there will be fewer professors per student.

Many people have probably noticed the construction going on in the tunnels, transforming the space for new classrooms. Some classes take place in Martino Hall, formerly only a Fordham office space, but even that can only do so much for the spacing issue.

Even more important than a lack of space, more students mean there will be fewer professors per student. In order to compensate, Fordham would either have to hire more professors or increase class sizes. FLC prides itself on its small class sizes and a low student-to-faculty ratio, but as confirmed by Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center Laura Auricchio, the school has already raised the class size limit for many classes by one student.

Additionally, many upper-level classes only have one or two sections per semester, making it difficult for students to register for the classes they need or want. While all students know the struggle of not being able to get their preferred schedule, they at least have the knowledge that the more they advance at Fordham, the easier it will be. Since registration is done based on the number of credits a student has, the further one advances, the fewer people there are who can register before them. This won’t hold as true for the current first-years or the classes after them, as there are a couple hundred more students to compete against.

While one class of this size is proving problematic, it is only temporary, as they will eventually graduate.

While some may think that these students can just take classes at Rose Hill’s much larger and more spacious campus, that is certainly not the answer. First of all, students chose to come to Lincoln Center for a reason; they should not be forced to take classes at Rose Hill if they do not want to. But, arguably more important, Rose Hill is having the same issue, since their first-year class is also the biggest the school has ever had. So while there may be one or two more sections of an upper-level class at Rose Hill, there is no guarantee that students from the Lincoln Center campus will be able to get a spot. Even if they can, that would only be a Band-Aid on the larger problem of accepting too many first-years.

The only way to truly fix the issues caused by this larger class is to ensure that it does not happen again. While one class of this size is proving problematic, it is only temporary, as they will eventually graduate. However, if Fordham is unable to return to the previous average class size next year, these issues will compound.

While we welcome the new first-years with (socially distanced) open arms, the number of admissions into Fordham last year represents unsustainable growth that we must curb before it is unmanageable. Like a Lowenstein elevator during rush hour, there is simply no space.

The post Fordham’s First-Year Class Size Is Causing Problems appeared first on The Observer.

Residents of McKeon Hall received an email on Sept. 29 from Kristopher Little, resident director for first-year students, addressing acts of vandalism and theft on floors 11, 14, 19 and 21. The stolen items included decorations placed throughout the hallways by resident assistants (RAs) and resident first-year mentors (RFMs).

The decorative boards are created by Residential Life staff each semester in order to sponsor an educational and aesthetically-pleasing environment, according to Little.

“We (the Residential Life Staff) put in a lot of time and energy into these boards before residents came onto campus. We spent hours working on them at night well past midnight, making sure that our floors, our decorations, everything looked good for the residents because we want to create a very positive, friendly living environment,” Dennis Zhang, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) ’24 and RFM of floor 19, said.

The email noted that the stolen items included an Olivia Rodrigo vinyl record, mustache decor and an illustration of the Pokémon character Bulbasaur.

The email noted that the stolen items included an Olivia Rodrigo vinyl record, mustache decor and an illustration of the Pokémon character Bulbasaur. The stolen items have not been returned.

The email sent by Little was the only direct communication of these incidents to all residents in McKeon. Zhang noted that he also emailed his residents on floor 19 personally.

As of Oct. 20, no residents have come forward claiming responsibility for the damage done to any of the floor decorations. If a resident were to come forward, there are disciplinary measures in place.

There currently aren’t any plans to renovate the board.

“Vandalism is a policy violation; students caught in the act or believed to be in connection with the vandalism will go through the conduct process,” Little said. “If found responsible through the conduct process, students may be held accountable through sanctioning and fines.”

When asked if there were plans to remake the handmade stolen items, Kenneth Tang, GSBLC ’24 and RFM of floor 11, said due to time constraints, there currently aren’t any plans to renovate the board.

“Whoever is doing this, please stop breaking the (bulletin) boards because everyone worked hours and hours and dedicated time,” Tang said. “You wouldn’t go to a museum and break something, so why would you do it anywhere else?”

Both Zhang and Tang expressed their disbelief that a resident from their own floor would commit these acts or that their floor would be targeted in general. Tang claimed he “never thought” his floor would be implicated in this, and Zhang “would like to believe that my (residents) wouldn’t commit things like this.”

Although no acts of vandalism have been reported since, Tang fears this will not be an isolated act throughout the academic year. “It will be a habit; that mass email turned out to be a meme. I saw people meming it.”

Zhang stated that the only action to be taken by the McKeon Hall community is to keep in mind the “if you see something, say something” mentality.

McKeon residents are urged to keep their eyes open and report any strange behavior or evidence of theft and vandalism to an RA, RFM or resident director.

The post Bulletin Boards Defaced in McKeon Hall appeared first on The Observer.

Since the beginning of the spring semester, four reported instances of students getting stuck in elevators at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus have raised concerns about the safety of the elevators on campus.

According to Robert Dineen, director of Public Safety at Lincoln Center, Public Safety has responded to each of the four instances. These elevator breakdowns have occurred in the Leon Lowenstein Center, McMahon Hall, the 140 West Building and McKeon Hall.

Cheryl Mendoza, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’25, said that she saw students stuck in one of the McMahon elevators during her first week at Fordham in the fall semester.

Public Safety responds to reports of stuck elevators by checking in with the people inside the elevator cart via the intercom system to ensure that they are safe, Dineen noted. They then assist occupants out of the elevators by bringing in the university’s elevator technician and members of the Facilities Management team.

“In each case this semester, the students were released from the elevator without further incident or need for additional assistance.” Robert Dineen, director of Public Safety at Lincoln Center

“In each case this semester, the students were released from the elevator without further incident or need for additional assistance,” he said.

Dineen also emphasized that the staff tests the elevators through monthly, semi-annual and annual inspection testing.

“We also have a dedicated on-site elevator technician assigned to the Lincoln Center campus who monitors and maintains our elevators to ensure they are operating in a safe and secure manner on a daily basis,” Dineen added.

Students still expressed anxiety over McMahon elevators. Cristina Flores, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’24, said overcrowding is a significant issue for her in the McMahon elevators.

“I have had experiences in which there are just too many people in the elevator, and you can feel that the amount of people is way too much,” she said. Flores described how when McMahon elevators are crowded, everyone’s weight makes the elevator seem to “sink” slightly.

Mendoza also expressed how she lacked confidence in the safety of McMahon’s elevators.

“The crazy thing is that the elevator worked perfectly fine the next day.” Sophia Jugeli-Giroux, FCLC ’25

“I still take them, but I walk down the stairs instead of taking the elevators down,” she said.

Besides elevators completely breaking down, students also reported technical difficulties with the elevators in McMahon.

“They glitch,” Sophia Jugeli-Giroux, FCLC ’25, said. According to her, there was an instance where the elevator doors would not close.

“The crazy thing is that the elevator worked perfectly fine the next day,” Jugeli-Giroux said.

“My main issue with them is how cramped they get, which doesn’t feel safe already because the elevators are known to be faulty but especially with COVID, it’s extra scary.” Cheryl Mendoza, FCLC ’25

Students also expressed similar sentiments about the capacity issues with the elevators at Lowenstein. Though no technical problems were reported, students said the Lowenstein elevators have constant traffic and are delayed when students try to take them in between classes.

“My main issue with them is how cramped they (the elevators) get, which doesn’t feel safe already because the elevators are known to be faulty but especially with COVID, it’s extra scary,” Mendoza said.

Jugeli-Giroux encouraged students to take the stairs instead of the elevators if they can and if their classes occur anywhere below the fifth floor.

Flores added that Fordham could limit the number of students in elevators during daytime “rush hours.”

The post Students Lack Confidence in Fordham’s Elevators appeared first on The Observer.

Atop Fordham’s law school sits one of the most notable features of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus: McKeon Hall. The first-year dorm is a very high contemporary building with large windows that provide amazing views. Not only does it make for excellent photos, but McKeon Hall is what most resident students first call home at Lincoln Center.

No Lincoln Center student’s experience is complete until they have visited the Plaza with their friends (before it closes at 10 p.m., of course) and looked up at the beautiful McKeon Hall to see the iconic, illegal LED lights that almost every first-year decorates their room with.

Some new students are worried about what living in a more traditional dorm will be like, especially in comparison to the spacious apartments in McMahon Hall. However, they should never fear, as McKeon is the best college dorm at Fordham, and maybe even in all of New York.

It has a certain charm to it. Its personality depends on its residents, and each floor has its own vibrant feel from its residents and the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) student staff members. The building itself has its own unique quirks — from the four elevators shared by over 400 residents, to the turnstiles by the dining hall that randomly allow or deny passage, to the oddly-stained carpeted hallways. But the experience of living in McKeon cannot be beat.

While residents complain about the trash rooms with a climate of their own, the one shared laundry room and the walls that allow you to intimately know your neighbors, it is undeniably the closest Fordham Lincoln Center students will get to a traditional college dorm at an anything but traditional college campus.

These distinct features can certainly add up and become frustrating, but they simply add value to the two-term sentence dedicated to the first-year dorm: They make for hilarious stories to share at dinners, and the seemingly paper-thin walls provide funny gossip to share with your friends. Your time in McKeon will create many sentimental remembrances with friends.

Despite its flaws and what I suspect to be some shoddy construction, McKeon makes up for its faults with its stunning views of the city. Those living in an even-numbered room have a $10-million view of downtown Manhattan of buildings like the Hearst Tower, the Deutsche Bank Center, Hudson Yards and, in some rooms, the Freedom Tower. You also have a nice view of the campus you call home.

Those living in an odd-numbered room have a different, but also gorgeous, view. As someone who lived on this side, I would argue it is the better view. Your room faces uptown, and residents can see Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School, and a snippet of the Hudson River. At night, students can see a building cased in white light and another lit up in a magenta that is located near Columbia University, a whole 60 blocks away. This view is gorgeous and gives students the opportunity to see stunning sunrises and sunsets.

If you find yourself on the uptown side of McKeon and are looking for a fun game, go down to Lincoln Center and try to find your room! My first-year roommate and I did that and it was a great memory. We acted like proud parents when we recognized our room.

Day-view of McKeon Hall. (CHRISTA TIPTON-NIGRO)

While the strange quirks and stunning views are certainly part of every McKeon resident’s experience, new students are often most concerned about one thing: What will their room look like?

If you are anything like me, I am positive you are searching for everything you possibly can to get an idea of what McKeon is like. I know which YouTube videos you have watched, like the one with the girl showing her room on the even side and telling you it is the best side. (I still think the odd-numbered side is just better.) YouTube videos are a great way to give you an idea of what the dorm looks like, but there is so much more to McKeon, and I guarantee it is very different from what you are imagining.

The furniture provided is … an acquired taste, and the room without any decorations is boring, bland and stifling, making it important to decorate the walls with posters and art. I also recommend having desk lamps for better lighting. I would never advocate or support students breaking policies relating to LED lights or hanging lights, and I do not at all think they make the room nicer and add a far better light than the fluorescent lights do. I totally do not recommend people get them for their room, because it is not allowed per ResLife guidelines.

Anyway, it is important to make your room as cozy as possible! It will take a while before your room is perfect — I only had two or so wall decorations at move-in. I later bought a “Jujutsu Kaisen” poster, a “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” poster (from the “Stardust Crusaders” story arc, in case anyone was curious) and more wall art after attending Anime NYC. It took some time before my room started to feel like home.

To help first-years meet new people, each floor in McKeon also has a specific lounge, perfect for social get-togethers and spaces for ResLife-sponsored events, courtesy of each floor’s residential assistants and resident first-year mentors. People often worry about making friends in college, but honestly, it is very easy. Orientation is a great start, but your floors will also help foster a community feeling, and you will have a chance to meet people on your floor and on other floors too! The close-knit building allows you to easily go to a friend’s dorm and hang out.

McKeon is a lovely place to live, and I recommend you enjoy your short stay there by taking advantage of the lifestyle it gives you as well as the great memories you will form in its hallowed halls.

Finally, while it can feel like an inconvenience to not have a kitchen, as students living in McMahon Hall do, a traditional college dorm is actually a great way to start your college career. It allows for more time to focus on academics and allows you to fully transition into life away from home. As many older students will say, McKeon feels like you are living in a hotel, which is a great way to begin adulthood and college life before transitioning into apartment-style dorms at McMahon Hall as an upperclassman.

McKeon is a lovely place to live, and I recommend you enjoy your short stay there by taking advantage of the lifestyle it gives you as well as the great memories you will form in its hallowed halls. Next year, as I walk home to my McMahon apartment across the Plaza, I will be able to fondly look up at McKeon and reminisce about my first year. Enjoy McKeon and welcome to Fordham!

The post Fordham’s Best Dorm, McKeon Hall appeared first on The Observer.

My first year of college was anything but ordinary. First of all, I started during the pre-vaccine era of a global pandemic. Then, as my remote fall 2020 semester wrapped up, I decided to transfer to Fordham University. I knew that I was unhappy at my former school, and since the university had no plans of resuming in-person education for the spring 2021 semester, I hoped I could get a second chance at my first-year experience.

As I prepared for my do-over first semester, I was a little disappointed to open my email and discover that my housing assignment was in McMahon Hall, the residence hall that houses primarily upper-level students, rather than the first-year student-dominated McKeon Hall. McMahon seemed perfectly fine, but from what I’d heard from current students, McKeon was a recently built dorm with gorgeous views that helped first-year students get to know one another and adjust to college life together. I tried to make the best of it and hoped there would be other new students in my apartment, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit of FOMO.

I soon discovered that I had nothing to fear, as I was assigned to a fantastic apartment where I was able to meet plenty of new people and form new friendships. Although I have never lived in (or even been in) McKeon Hall, I can say with absolute certainty that McMahon Hall’s apartment-style living is the better housing option for first-years and older students alike. While less traditional than most first-year residence experiences, McMahon Hall gives students the opportunity to escape the bubble of dorm life and fully experience what living in the city is like.

The Joy of Cooking

The biggest pro to living in McMahon is having your own kitchen. Although there is a shared kitchen in McKeon, this experience in no way compares to having a kitchen of your own.

Each McMahon kitchen includes a full-size refrigerator, sink and an oven with a stovetop. You and your roommates may need to invest in some cooking utensils and kitchen appliances (pots and pans, microwave, toaster, coffee machine, etc.), but that’s based on your preference. You can bring your own mini-fridge and microwave to a McKeon dorm if you would like, but these items are no substitute for a full, personal kitchen. Maybe the only dish you’ve perfected so far is a bowl of Frosted Flakes, but you will soon realize just how essential a kitchen is when you have to rely on expensive take-out dinners and your school’s cafeteria for every meal.

More important than having your own kitchen is being exempt from Fordham’s meal plan. McKeon residents are required to purchase a meal plan, whereas McMahon students have the option of buying one. As a new student, you may think that it is easier to just get a meal plan, especially if you don’t want to worry about grocery shopping and cooking, but you will soon discover that the dining options at Fordham are less than popular among students.

McMahon is by no means glamorous, but for a college apartment in New York, it doesn’t get much better.

I bought a meal plan for my first year of living in McMahon and canceled it shortly after purchasing my first meal. I never ate on campus again. Sure, the food is technically edible, but when you have a full kitchen at your disposal, it’s better to save the money on a meal plan and put it toward grocery shopping.

A busy college schedule can leave students exhausted, and it is likely that you will not have the energy to cook every day of the week. Even if you don’t plan on cooking a five-course meal after a long day of classes, there are plenty of easy meal options at your disposal, such as quick, pre-made meals at any local grocery store (consider Whole Foods’ endless hot bar or the hundreds of frozen options offered at Trader Joe’s). You can also give meal-prepping a try by cooking larger portions of multiple meals when you have extra time and reheating them throughout the week.

A Home, Not a Dorm

Another pro of living in a full-sized apartment is that McMahon dorms are built with common areas, whereas McKeon dorms are not. Each dorm has a living and dining room area that is fully furnished by the school with a dining room table and chairs, two coffee tables of different sizes, a couch and several other living room chairs depending on how many roommates you have. While most of the furniture looks as though it has been used by McMahon residents since the dorm was first opened in 1993, you won’t have to worry about buying or moving furniture into your apartment.

Although you technically have more roommates in each McMahon apartment than in a McKeon dorm, most students will still have one or two roommates in their actual bedrooms: individual McMahon bedrooms come in single, double and, depending on incoming class size, forced triple configurations. You can still spend time with your other roommates or any friends you invite over in your apartment’s common area. This allows you to have your own, private space while still being able to hang out with friends in your home, unlike in a McKeon dorm, in which your limited space for entertaining is also your bedroom, dining room and workspace.

Most McMahon apartments that I have lived in or visited have been fairly sized (or even large in New York City terms). To be fair, I have only lived in corner apartments in McMahon (specifically, the B, M and H configurations), and others who have lived in other rooms may feel differently. While every apartment has its own quirks, such as the occasional small bedroom or closet and eerily stained furniture, most would agree that for their location, McMahon apartments are some of the nicest apartments that most students will ever live in in New York.

McMahon is by no means glamorous, but for a college apartment in New York, it doesn’t get much better.

Getting the Best View

McKeon is known for offering students gorgeous views of the city that most students will likely never be able to afford once moving off campus. Even though I strongly believe that McMahon is the better option, I can admit that the view from McKeon is far better than anything you will get in McMahon. While the view from the majority of apartments in McMahon is not worth writing home about, your position in the building, and subsequent view, can vary.

I have had a variety of views while living in McMahon, ranging from the entire westernmost wall of Lowenstein to the inside of living rooms of next-door luxury apartments and even the Empire State Building. While it can be difficult to predict what your view will be based on your room assignment, it generally helps to be on a higher floor in an apartment with a view facing the street.

The apartments facing the plaza, colloquially known as “the fishbowl” since you can clearly see into other students’ rooms, have a less exciting but still comforting view of the school you call home. While your view is much more of a gamble if you choose to live outside of the fishbowl, you might just get lucky and have a gorgeous view of the city (that admittedly still does not compare to the views in McKeon).

An Alternative to Traditional College Living

Most students have a clear idea of what their college dorm room should look like: a tiny cinder block room holding two, 10-foot-high beds on opposite sides of the room with a long row of bathrooms down the hall shared by an entire floor. Although living in McKeon is a more glamorous version of what most students imagine dorm living to be like, it still caters to the traditional image that many college students think they need to have when entering this next phase of their life.

If you are a first-year student living in McMahon, you may feel like I did when I first got my housing assignment. You might be a little disappointed that you’ll never have a “traditional” college dorming experience. But let’s face it, if you decided to attend college in the middle of Manhattan, you already aren’t getting the traditional college experience. If you are not originally from the city, it may feel strange to be going to school on a tiny campus in a major metropolis, when the majority of your friends are probably attending school on a sprawling, green campus in a suburban or rural area. However, going to college in the city will give you an exciting and unique college experience that you hopefully will enjoy to the fullest!

Living in New York City is a fantastic opportunity that many can only dream of. Living in a spacious apartment rather than a traditional cramped dorm takes it up a notch. Take it from someone who never lived in McKeon: You do not need to live in McKeon to have a great first year in college.

While McKeon offers sweeping views of the city and is a freshly renovated dorm that gives students a more traditional college lifestyle, McMahon offers a much more inviting layout, more privacy and more independence (especially with cooking). Part of me will always wonder what would have been different if I’d lived in McKeon, but ultimately, I am happy to have had the opportunity to live in McMahon, Fordham’s best dorm.

The post All Rams Should Be Fans of McMahon appeared first on The Observer.

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