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Fordham President Elected to cIcu Board
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| Photo by Guy Cali Associates, Inc. |
The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu) has elected Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, to its board of trustees.
The cIcu represents the chief executives of New York’s more than 100 independent (private, not-for-profit) colleges and universities on issues of public policy. Its member colleges compose the largest private sector of higher education in the world and confer most of the bachelor’s degrees (57 percent), master’s degrees (71 percent), and doctoral and first professional degrees (80 percent) earned in New York state. The cIcu member campuses enroll nearly 450,000 students, including 290,000 New York state residents.
Jesuit Education Embraces Laity, Women to Grow
The biggest change in Jesuit education over the last half century has been a shift in its philosophy toward the laity, which universities now embrace to help them meet the challenges of a changing world, according to a group of Jesuit administrators who shared their thoughts during a panel discussion on July 18. The event kicked off the weeklong Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators (JASPA) summer institute, held at Fordham University.
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Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., president emeritus of Fordham University, Christine Wiseman, J.D., vice president of academic affairs at Creighton University and Charles Currie, S.J., president of the AJCU.
Photo by Chris Taggart |
“The impact of laity on our institutions over the last 45 years has been extraordinary, the grace of our day,” said Charles Currie, S.J., president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU). “Ultimately, because of the declining number of Jesuits, our lay colleagues will determine whether the Ignatian identity will survive.”
The JASPA Summer Institute is held every five years and offers Student Affairs professionals and colleagues from Jesuit colleges, universities and affiliates the opportunity to gather, learn, teach and share the Jesuit heritage and commitment to education.
In addition to Father Currie, the opening session titled, “The State of Higher Education,” featured Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., president emeritus of Fordham University and Christine Wiseman, J.D., vice president of academic affairs at Creighton University.
“Jesuit education was shaped to respond to the signs of the times,” said Father O’Hare, who pointed to the decision made years ago by Jesuit institutions to adopt a board of trustees, making the schools eligible for public funding and opening the doors to more lay faculty, especially women.
Three hundred and ninety-two administrators from all 28 Jesuit universities attended this year’s conference, “Signs of the Times,” from July 17-21, which also featured sessions that examined the leadership, character development and student culture of the Jesuit universities.
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Calder Center Receives Grant for Student Housing
Fordham University’s Louis J. Calder Center Biological Field Station received a $202,697 grant from the National Science Foundation to build student housing at its 113-acre preserve in Armonk, N.Y.
“Lack of on-site housing for students has been a constant battle for years,” said John Wehr, Ph.D., associate professor of biology and director of the Calder Center. “Because students spend a large amount of time here, they need to be able to live here rather than commute every day from as far as New Jersey and Brooklyn.”
The Calder Center will build three modern log cabins that can accommodate as many as four students each. The new housing will enhance the training of current students by eliminating commutes as long as two hours, while also making the facility more attractive to prospective students from outside the New York metropolitan area. Only three of the center’s 15 full-time graduate students who conduct year-round research at the facility currently live on site.
Founded in 1967, the Louis J. Calder Center Biological Field Station is used to train biologists for work in environmental science and conservation. The center has a 10-acre lake for aquatic studies, a laboratory for biological and chemical analyses, and forest, field and wetland habitats for teaching and conducting research in ecology and conservation.
Freshmen Move In Early to Take Urban Plunge
More than 100 freshmen arrived on Fordham’s Bronx and Manhattan campuses early this semester to participate in Urban Plunge, a University program that gives new students the opportunity to work together on community service projects involving local youth, the elderly, the homeless and the environment.
“[Urban Plunge] is a service program for incoming first-year students that gives them an introduction to Fordham University, the surrounding community and New York City,” said Heather O’Rourke, associate coordinator of the Community Service Program. “We hope that this is just their first service-oriented project at Fordham.”
Approximately 115 freshmen moved onto the Rose Hill campus on Aug. 25 and another 30 moved onto the Lincoln Center campus on Aug. 26. Current students who are alumni of the program welcomed the incoming student participants and served as peer mentors.
The students did service work at more than 20 sites in the Bronx and Manhattan, including soup kitchens, nursing homes, transitional shelters, hospitals and community parks. Many of the community efforts take place in areas of the Bronx with the lowest per-capita incomes in the country.
According to Nick Napolitano, associate coordinator for community service and service learning, the program exposes students to the diverse array of life experiences you can find in New York City.
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Fordham and Peekskill Receive Grant for Math Program
Fordham University and the Peekskill Public School District have been awarded a $133,626 grant from the New York Department of Education to develop a certificate program for teachers that aims to help raise elementary and middle school state-wide math test performance. The grant will be distributed over two years.
“Peekskill is relying on the expertise of Fordham’s mathematicians to help elementary and middle school students gain more passion and a better knowledge of mathematics,” said Michael McGrath, Ed.D., dean of the Tarrytown campus for the Graduate School of Education (GSE).
The 12-credit program is being developed by Matt Bromme, vice-chairperson of the Division of Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy at the Graduate School of Education and Melkana Brakalova-Trevithick, Ph.D., assistant professor in mathematics. The program will give 15 Peekskill teachers and administrators the necessary tools to teach elementary and middle school students to excel in math.
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