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FEBRUARY 11, 2016 VOLUME XXXVI, ISSUE 2
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Law Professor Runs for Congress
Martino Hall: A History By CONNOR MANNION News Co-Editor/Asst. Literary Editor
By CECILE NEIDIG Asst. News Co-Editor
Associate Fordham Law professor, Zephyr Teachout, recently announced her campaign for an open Congressional seat in the 19th district of New York. Teachout’s previous run for public office was her bid for incumbent and Fordham graduate Andrew Cuomo’s governorship. Teachout was able to secure 34.3 percent of the votes in the primary election. Associate Professor of political science Christina Greer, Ph.D, said this feat is significant because “she had no name recognition and she went against a very powerful, not just Governor, but someone who has a family name.” In voting for Teachout instead of Cuomo, voters sent “a very clear message to the Governor that even though he is incredibly powerful, he can still be beaten,” Greer said. In her current race for a seat in the House of Representatives, Teachout is running in a district previously represented by a Republican. In regards to the viability of her chances of turning this district blue, Greer noted that a lot of the counties in upstate New York are not as “red versus blue as you might think, they might be a little more purple, so often times you’ll find more moderate to conservative Democrats who are voting not necessarily based on party, but because they actually like that candidate.” Teachout has pledged to fund her campaign for Congress sans any monetary contribution from super PACs, a group that can spend large sums of money independently from campaigns or candidates, and rely on grassroots donations. In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Teachout condemned big money in politics, both on the national and state levels. She wrote on the illegality of the quid pro quo exchanges in politics and that big money donations are only legal if those exchanges do not take place. However, “legal campaign contributions can be as bad as bribes in creating obligations,” she wrote. “The corruption that hides in plain sight is the real threat to our democracy.” In the op-ed Teachout argues that the private financing of campaigns is not the only way campaigns should be funded. The rationale being that publicly funded campaigns with enough financial support make it “so that anyone with a broad base of support can run for office, and respond effectively to attacks, without becoming dependent on private patrons.” Teachout’s grassroots campaign would bring in small money donations, which Greer aligns to voters investing in the campaign for which they donated, “come Election Day, they’re the most likely to turn out and vote.” The district where Teachout is running comprises parts of Hudson Valley and the Catskills area. Republicans also vying for the seat in this district are Andrew Heaney, John Faso and Bob Bishop. On the Democratic side, Teachout will face off against John Kehoe.
ALANNA MARTINE KILKEARY / THE OBSERVER
Clare Cirillo, FCLC ‘16, can be seen in the halls of Lowenstein and on the billboards of Time Square.
Ram on the Runway
Clare Cirillo tells all about Yeezy, billboards and balancing it all By RUBY BUDDEMEYER Contributing Writer
What would it feel like to see yourself on a billboard in Union Square? Could you imagine getting texts from your classmates saying they saw your face in the mall? For Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) senior, Clare Cirillo, this is all just a part of her jour-
ney as a model on the rise. She humbly laughs, “It’s just kinda weird. It’s more funny to see how people react.” Cirillo is not your average, 21-year-old communications major. When she isn’t in one of her four night classes, she’s making a splash as an upcoming, see RAM ON THE RUNWAY pg. 8
In the fall 2015 semester, College Council announced the new name of the recently purchased College Board building: Martino Hall. It was known during the summer of 2015 mainly as ‘45 Columbus,’ and now the building has a number of once-disparate campus buildings consolidated under one roof. Martino Hall houses the department of communication and media studies, the Office of Career Services, International and Study Abroad programs (ISAP) and administration for the Gabelli School of Business, among other programs and offices. The building is named after a former vice president of Fordham University and a previous member of the board of trustees, Joseph Martino. Martino and Leon Lowenstein were responsible for acquiring land from Robert Moses for the development of the Lincoln Center campus in the 1950s. Martino graduated from Pace University in 1922. He worked for more than 50 years at National Lead Co. (now NL Industries), starting as an office boy in 1916 and retiring as board chairman in 1969. He also served as director for major corporations including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Chase Manhattan Bank and as vice chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Fordham in 1956. According to an earlier College Council meeting on Oct. 15, Martino’s name has always been a part of the Lincoln Center campus, though it was a lesser-known name for the Graduate School of Business that has since been unified into the Gabelli program. “Not many people were aware that the Graduate School of Business was also known as the Martino School of Business,” Robert Grimes,S.J., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, said while announcing the new name at a College Council meeting. According to a statement from Joseph McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, “it is more than fitting that we honor Mr. Martino by naming for him our newest building, facing his beloved Lincoln Center campus.”
OPINIONS
FEATURES
ARTS & CULTURE
SPORTS
Born in the USA
Looking for Me
Space Oddities
Daily Vices
Defining natural born citizenship in a heated political climate
The importance of minority representation on screen
David Bowie is for everyone, so “Let’s Dance”
How fantasy draft sites are changing the game
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THE STUDENT VOICE OF FORDHAM LINCOLN CENTER
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News
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
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Public Safety, Commuters Discuss Snow Concerns By STEPHAN KOZUB Asst. News Co-Editor
Following the second worst snowstorm in New York City history, the Office of Public Safety decided to reopen Fordham on Monday, Jan. 25. Commuters voiced concerns that the university was opened too soon. One main obstacle for commuters when deciding whether or not to come to Fordham following a severe snowstorm is the university’s attendance policy. Excused absences at Fordham are often solely reserved for family emergencies, religious holidays and illnesses with accompanying doctors’ notes. John Carroll, associate vice– president of Public Safety, explained the university’s procedures when determining to close and reopen in light of snowstorms. “We’re taking all of the sources of information that are available to us,” Carroll said. These sources include the Office of Emergency Management for New York, which “includes all of the MTA operations, buses, trains, local railroads, NJ Transit, etc,” according to Carroll. “I personally went down and looked at the campuses on Sunday because it was such a heavy snowstorm, particularly 26 inches in the Bronx, where there’s a lot of pathways and roadways,” Carroll continued. “I spoke to everyone at Lincoln Center to make sure all of the walkways were done, everything was clear and there were no problems with it. At Rose Hill I also made sure the campus was ready to go.” Carroll said that the delays in frequently used transportation services such as the LIRR were closely monitored. He added that these delays were part of the reason why the Office of Public Safety waited until 6 p.m. on Sunday to decide to reopen the university. “We had to see if they’d be up and running in the morning,” Carroll said. “They said they couldn’t do full service, but they could do some service. The one thing when we’re making all of these decisions is to figure out if we can get all of the students, faculty and support people there and make sure the school is running and functioning.” “Just because we open doesn’t mean that an isolated person who has a specific event in Queens, Long Island, Staten Island or wherever might not be able to get to school,” Carroll continued. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to
JESSICA HANLEY /THE OBSERVER
Columbus Circle during Winter Storm Jonas. Commuters felt the effect of the storm the day after it finished.
shut down the whole school. As we say in all of our alerts and bulletins, every individual has to take into account local conditions and make that determination. For example, there were some streets in Queens that weren’t even plowed until Wednesday and Thursday morning. We would never be closing Fordham because a student was in the unfortunate position of living on one of the streets where the plow hadn’t come through.” Carroll said that the procedure to close the University in the face of a snowstorm is similar. This procedure involves consulting the same sources, as well as bringing together an emergency management team including members from the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center and Westchester campuses. This team in turn discusses the effects of closing the university, particularly on “academic affairs, the academic deans, undergraduate and graduate schools, our IT and our facilities people because they have to stay over
the weekend and clean the place up so we can prepare and open as fast as we can,” according to Carroll. “All of [the] students, faculty and staff should know that we put [in] a tremendous amount of effort, and it takes us hours to look at all of these different pieces of information to make sure that we are opening a very safe and secure facility for our students, faculty and staff,” Carroll said, regarding all of the procedures. “There’s a lot of work that goes into this. It’s not just watching a television channel.” Carroll also stated that “we all at Fordham should recognize that in the last week with this blizzard, there were many employees of Fordham University who gave up time with their own families to serve the Fordham family, and I’m specifically talking about my own public safety officers, the Sodexo people who were there to feed our students on the campuses and the facilities people
who worked for 20 hours straight just shoveling the campuses.” The Commuting Students Association (CSA) did not comment in time for publication. Shimul Habib, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) ’19, said that he encountered train delays of “over a half hour” on his way to campus from his home in Queens. Carol Jeong, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’19, was not able to come to the university at all on Jan. 25, due to heavy amounts of snow in her hometown of Mahwah, N.J. “I got over 20 inches of snow,” Jeong said. As a theater major, she had rehearsal on that day, but said that “my teachers were so understanding and made an exception for me because I live an hour and 30 minutes away.” “And I saw on the Facebook page that there were several students who were having major complications in
getting to school on time,” Jeong continued. She did recognize, however, that “the university of course has to continue our education and can’t make exceptions for individual students.” Currently, nearly half of the Lincoln Center campus’s 1,800 undergraduate students are commuters, according to CSA. Given the plans and procedures in place, it appears that although they keep the university running and the members of the community safe, some commuters will continue to be adversely affected more than others in the case of significant snowstorms. Jeong said, “I think the overall sentiment is that while the school may be open, for some commuters it’s going to be very difficult for them to make it into school.” She continued, “So I think if a student lets a professor know that they can’t come due to the weather, they will and should be totally understanding.”
“Hoverboards” Banned Across Fordham Campuses By MIRANDA FEBUS Contributing Writer
Fordham’s Department of Public Safety recently banned the use and possession of the popular Christmas gift item hoverboards following New York City’s ban in November. “Since hoverboards are technically motor vehicles, but cannot be registered with Department of Motor Vehicles, they are prohibited on New York City streets by state law,” an email sent to members of the Fordham community from John Carroll, the associate vice president of Public Safety, said. “Likewise, hoverboards are prohibited on any campus roadway or path.” Carroll noted that he wanted to relay the message of the ban prior to students returning from winter vacation to ensure that hoverboards would not come back with them to campus. Over the winter break, the Department of Public Safety reviewed the issues associated with hoverboards. “I certainly took a look at the NYPD [and the] FDNY’s piece on it,” Carroll said. The issue of fire safety is the primary reason that Fordham has de-
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAMMY LJUNGBLAD/ KANSAS CITY STAR VIA FLICKR
Hoverboards were popular with Rose Hill athletes before the ban.
cided to ban all use and possession of hoverboards on campuses. “It is a fire safety hazard,” Carroll continued “It’s pretty clear.” He noted that some companies make cheap, substandard models of hoverboards that are prone to causing fires. According to Katie Rogers of The New York Times, “the main cause of the unpredictable fires in these devices can be traced back to the lithi-
um-ion batteries found inside them.” She wrote that “the batteries have immense energy, too much to be packed into a simple battery without safety concerns.” Similar to Carroll, Rodgers noted that “poorly designed batteries can overheat and are prone to explosion.” Additionally, the use of hoverboards on campus and in New York City poses a safety threat to both riders and pedestrians. In his email,
Caroll wrote that the ultimate decision to ban hoverboards was based upon “the risk of falls and injuries,” in addition to the fire safety issue. He noted that there are hardly any paths on campus to ride the hoverboards on, and people who are walking on those paths can get hurt. “We would love this to be a pedestrian-only campus,” Carroll stated. He further noted that since many buildings at Rose Hill require maintenance, the only vehicles allowed on that campus are work trucks, in addition to Sodexo trucks, which are carefully escorted to their destinations. “This is not a place for vehicles,” he said. “They’re dangerous to other people, both in the dorms and around campus, for the person who has the hoverboard and the people around them,” Daniel Villar, FCLC ‘17, said. To allay fears of safety issues, many New York officials have tried to amend the ban and legalization of these devices. Carroll stated that Fordham would not be willing to lift the ban on hoverboards on campus if certain restrictions were in place. “The fire hazard is the big hazard
and that is ever-present,” he said. Even with protective pads, he noted, hoverboards are still not safe devices. “They are like skateboards and people can get hurt.” Since students will be charged for riding the illegal device on city streets, there is no place even outside of campus for the hoverboards to be used. “I didn’t know they were illegal or banned in the city,” Aurpita Deb, FCLC ‘19, said. “I still see people riding them. I saw Ne-Yo riding around the streets the other day.” If members of the Fordham community choose to ignore the ban and bring or ride hoverboards on campus, Carroll noted that his Department of Public Safety will warn the offenders. “We are not here to penalize students,” he stated. In addition to hoverboards, Carroll noted that mopeds, bicycles, motorcycles, mini bikes and skateboards are also prohibited on campuses. “The goal here is just to keep [members of the Fordham community] safe, that this is a safe place for you to come study,” he said. “I’m very concerned for public safety.”
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THE OBSERVER February 11, 2016
News
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Political Stragetists Predict Primaries By STEPHAN KOZUB Asst. News Co-Editor
In the ongoing speculation about a democratic socialist or an unapologetically brazen TV personality possibly being our country’s next leader, the only thing people seem to agree on is that the primaries are barely predictable. On Jan. 28, however, Associate Professor of political science Christina Greer and political strategists Alexis Grenell and Jessica Proud met at Fordham to do just that and discuss the ongoing 2016 Presidential election. Greer explained the decision to have an ideologically diverse panel of all women. “I’ve had several panels here before, all sponsored by the deans,” Greer said. “The one piece I thought I was always lacking was actually partisan diversity. I have quite a few Republican students who consistently take my courses, and so I thought it was really important for a host of reasons to make sure that I really worked on partisan diversity because there’s a lot of reforms that can happen if Democrats and Republicans actually talk to one another.” “And then, there’s just some really smart women who know politics, so why not introduce them to Fordham students, especially because many students have been able to get internships with various people after these forums,” Greer continued. Grenell is a columnist for City and State Magazine. Among her accolades are serving as Communications Director for New York State Senator Jeff Klein and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Today, she runs her own consulting practice “focusing on issue campaigns for both elected officials and nongovernmental organizations,” according to Greer. Proud is a Republican strategist and partner at the November Team. Described as a “targeted missile” by City Hall News, she is “a veteran public affairs and crisis communications professional” and has “worked in high pressure environments for her entire career,” as stated by Greer. She has served as Deputy Director of Public Affairs for two New York Senate Majority Leaders and as a spokeswoman for campaigns on several levels of government. She regularly appears on TV and radio shows, and is often quoted as a communications expert. The panel is the first event in a two-part series. In April, Greer, Grenell and Proud will reconvene to discuss their predictions and their thoughts on the election. When opening the event, Greer stated “I thought what better way to
GRAPHIC BY SABRINA JEN/THE OBSERVER
figure things out, since this is all a bit confusing for quite a few of us, than to have two brilliant women, a Democratic and Republican strategist, to help make sense of what we’re seeing.” The first topic discussed was, as Greer called it, “the disintegration of all types of communication and organization in the Republican Party.” “I think what’s happening with Trump on the Republican side is also happening on the Democratic side with Bernie Sanders,” Proud said. “People are obviously very frustrated, and they want to rage
against the machine. They don’t want the status quo. And they view both candidates as someone who’s willing to speak out and buck that.” Grenell followed these comments by discussing the inaccuracy of recent polls. “Polling has been really erratic,” Grenell said, referencing the regulation that polls can only be conducted through landlines. “This makes representative polling increasingly difficult because more and more [people] don’t have landlines.” Due to this issue, she advised people to not “take them at first glance.” The conversation then shifted to
Trump and the media. “What I think is really fascinating is that he doesn’t need to rely on the media, and he doesn’t need to rely on paid advertising,” Proud said. “This is the first campaign that I’ve seen where paid ads have played such a minimal role in actually influencing voters.” “Politicians now have ways to directly speak to the electorate,” Grenell said, referencing YouTube and Snapchat. “We have so many resources for candidates now that they don’t have to rely on the media.” Before shifting to the Democrat-
ic candidates, the panel discussed Trump’s absence from the debate on Jan. 28. “You’re running for the President of the United States, and some people are like ‘how is he going to negotiate with Putin and China if he can’t handle Megyn Kelly,’ and I think that’s a valid criticism,” Proud said regarding Trump’s decision. “This is the highest office. If you cannot handle tough questions, then you really don’t belong in the race.” Regarding the Democratic candidates, Sanders’ popularity was discussed. “I think that both parties are changing,” Proud said. “You’re seeing an increase in polarization on both sides and if you look at the rise of people like Elizabeth Warren [and] Bill de Blasio, the core of the Democratic vote right now is definitely becoming more liberal.” Regarding Clinton, Proud stated that “one of her biggest flaws in this race has been she doesn’t know who she is as a candidate and she sees where the heart of the party is and she’s trying to go that way, but it comes off as very inauthentic and transparent.” “I don’t think she’s an inauthentic person,” Grenell said in response. “I think she’s an inauthentic candidate.” The conversation then shifted to discussing former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s potential bid for the White House. “In this crazy election cycle, could this Jewish, billionaire, pro-choice, pro-gun control guy who had the second hardest job in America and managed a corporation win?” Grenell asked. “He’s checking a lot of interesting boxes.” “I think that it would certainly make the race very interesting,” Proud said, “I do think that there’s a very large swath of voters that don’t identify with either party, and if he can present himself as a pragmatic, results driven candidate who’s actually going to fix Washington, I think he could make it a real race.” The panel concluded with questions from students, which covered topics including Clinton’s emails and whether Trump or Cruz would be a worse candidate for the Republican Party, to which both strategists answered Cruz. “We’ll see what happens,” Proud said regarding the possible outcomes of the election. “We’ve never had a nominee that has lost both New Hampshire and Iowa. So if you look at the historical trends, it will be either one of those candidates.” “But I think this year is unpredictable,” Proud continued. “If there were to be a year for something crazy to happen, it would be this year.”
College Council Discusses News and Middle States By CONNOR MANNION News Co-Editor/Asst. Literary Editor
While the bi-annual Club Day went on in the Indoor Plaza, College Council had their first meeting of the new year to discuss business for the spring semester. The meeting was held in McMahon 109. Robert Grimes, S.J., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), announced that the university had named an inaugural visiting chair established by Fordham alumna and author Mary Higgins Clark, FCLC ’79, with a donation of two million dollars in 2012 to establish a visiting chair in creative writing. “The visiting chair, who will teach for a few weeks in the fall semester is Lee Child, who is a contemporary of Clark.” Lee Child is perhaps most well known for his series of books featuring the protagonist Jack Reacher which were
“ The [creative writing] chair in the fall
semester is Lee Child, who is a contemporary of [Mary Higgins] Clark. – ROBERT GRIMES, dean of FCLC, on the new visiting chair in creative writing
adapted into the eponymous film starring Tom Cruise. “It’s good that we were able to find a friend and contemporary of Clark’s, but we’re hoping to find more writers as the years go on and in different fields of writing as well,” Grimes said. Yielding the meeting to current business, the main topics included a discussion of online summer classes and if they should they be allowed to be taken by liberal arts
undergraduates. Currently, students in Gabelli and Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) are allowed to take these courses. Students present at the meeting, Rory Hanrahan and Becky Song, both FCLC ’18 and representatives of United Student Government (USG), said that they saw the appeal of online courses being offered to liberal arts students. Katherine Ott, FCLC ’17 and the vice president of the Resident Hall Association (RHA),
asked if online courses were different in pricing to in-person summer courses. According to Robert Moniot, assistant dean of FCLC, “the pricing per credit would be the same.” Professors also expressed concern that once an online class curriculum was created, they could be replaced by a graduate student or an adjunct professor. According to Grimes, faculty also needed to prepare for upcoming Middle States accreditation. Educational accreditation is a quality assurance process to ensure colleges like Fordham are upholding educational standards. There will be a visiting team of professors and administrators from various MidAtlantic universities to perform this commission. This process will begin in April. Grimes deferred to the usual business of the spring semester by telling faculty to be ready for the
major fair happening on Feb. 11. “The fair is primarily for sophomores who have to declare at the end of this semester, but freshmen will be encouraged to stop by as well,” he said. He also asked faculty to prepare for Spring Preview, where many admitted students come to get a better sense of Fordham as a whole. “If you are going to represent the major, we’d also recommend that you bring along a student in the major to explain that experience as well,” Grimes continued. Before adjourning the College Council meeting, he also mentioned that Continuous University Strategic Planning (CUSP), a university-wide planning initiative, would be an upcoming agenda item for future College Council meetings, “but I just found out before this that we don’t have to discuss it at this meeting.”
Opinions
Tyler Burdick — Opinions Co-Editor tburdick1@fordham.edu Areeg Abdelhamid — Opinions Co-Editor aabdelhamid1@fordham.edu
STAFF EDITORIAL
F
facet of American life, and simply ignoring that fact and “moving on” will never be a viable solution. We need Black History Month in a nation where young black men are killed by police at a rate five times higher than that of their
“We all must do everything in our power to dispel the myth that racism is dead.” white counterparts. We need it in a nation where one and three black men can expect to be incarcerated in their lifetime. The burden of slavery, Jim Crow, and a biased judicial system still weighs heavy on the American conscience, and the social ills caused by systemic white supremacy are far from being cured. In this environment, it is vitally important for all Americans to be educated and informed. To the white student body, use this month as an opportunity to appreciate black culture and the
Observer the
WHY WE STILL NEED BLACK HISTORY MONTH
ebruary is Black History Month, and despite racial conflicts in the United States becoming more and more pronounced, some have made calls for the concept to be abolished. They claim that Black History Month is divisive, that it promotes social unrest and that it is a cause of racial problems as opposed to providing a solution. Fox News commentator Stacey Dash even went as far as to claim that Black History Month and media platforms directed at people of color (such as B.E.T.) represent a new form of “segregation.” Many like Dash believe the celebration to be a double standard, as if there were no difference between the concept of a “white history month” and Black History Month. Those who feel this way do so out of ignorance of the structures of institutionalized racism still painfully existent in America today. Oppression is not a matter of the oppressed lacking backbone, and it is not something the oppressed can justly be held responsible for. There are very real disparities present for people of color in every
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
enormous contributions made to society by the black community despite centuries of being scorned due to hatred and intolerance. In this vibrant and diverse city, there are many opportunities to view black art, music, and theater. The Color Purple, the musical based off of Alice Walker’s award-winning novel of the same name, is currently in its Broadway-revival until May. Following the life of a young black woman as she experiences abuse, pain, alongside familial and romantic love, the musical is an excellent example of the kind of artistic experience that can help to foster a necessary cultural understanding, while also giving people of color an increased level of media representation that has been denied them by those in the mainstream for so long. We all must do everything in our power to dispel the myth that racism is dead, so that we can genuinely acknowledge and solve the problems that divide us. But more importantly, continue to actively seek out knowledge and justice in all 12 months of the year.
Editor-in-Chief Adriana Gallina Managing Editor Ben Moore News Co-Editors Ana Fota Connor Mannion Asst. News Co-Editor Stephan Kozub Cecile Neidig Opinions Co-Editors Tyler Burdick Areeg Abdelhamid Asst. Opinions Editor John McCullough Arts & CultureEditor Rachel Jarvis Asst. Arts & Culture Co-Editors Elena Ciotta Morgan Steward Features Co-Editors Alanna Kilkeary Hansini Weedagama Alysha Kundamal Asst. Features Editor Reese Ravner Literary Co-Editors Jessica Vitovitch Erika Ortiz Asst. Literary Co-Editors Kayla D’Angelo Connor Mannion Sports Editor Matthew McCarthy Asst. Sports Editor Mohdshobair Hussaini Copy Editors Brianna Goodman Kaitlyn Lyngaas Tyler Burdick Erika Ortiz Layout Editor Elodie Huston Asst. Layout Co-Editors Sabrina Jen Katie Maurer Multimedia Producer Jesse Carlucci Photo Co-Editors Jessica Hanley Jess Luszczyk Hana Keningham Asst. Photo Editor Andronika Zimmerman Online Editor Ben Moore Business Manager Victoria Leon Faculty Advisor Prof. Amy Aronson Faculty Layout Advisor Molly Bedford
Please recycle me when you’re done.
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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES • Letters to the Editor should be typed and sent to The Observer, Fordham University, 113 West 60th Street, Room 408, New York, NY 10023, or e-mailed to fordhamobserver@gmail.com. Length should not exceed 200 words. All letters must be signed and include contact information, official titles, and year of graduation (if applicable) for verification. • If submitters fail to include this information, the editorial board will do so at its own discretion. • The Observer has the right to withhold any submissions from publication and will not consider more than two letters from the same individual on one topic. The Observer reserves the right to edit all letters and submissions for content, clarity and length. • Opinions articles and commentaries represent the view of their authors. These articles are in no way the views held by the editorial board of The Observer or Fordham University. • The Editorial is the opinion held by a majority of The Observer’s editorial board. The Editorial does not reflect the views held by Fordham University.
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Opinions
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
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We Need to Define “Natural-Born” Once and for All Tyler Burdick
Opinions Co-Editor
With the 2016 Iowa Caucuses now behind us, Hillary Clinton has emerged as the victorious Democratic candidate while the Republican candidate is Ted Cruz. Donald Trump, who took second place, expectedly did not take defeat as gracefully as he could have, making yet another jab at an issue he’s been bellowing about for months now— that Ted Cruz was born in Canada and therefore shouldn’t even be eligible to run for president in the first place. Yet, believe it or not, Donald Trump may actually have a point, and it’s one we desperately need to start talking about, though not for the selfish reasons he is using to bring them up. Aside from Trump, very few groups or individuals have raised the issue of Cruz’s actual birthplace, and whether or not it prevents him from running for president. A few lawsuits have been filed by certain citizens of the United States, like one by five Trump supporters in Alabama, that allege that Cruz is not eligible to be president due to his Canadian origin. However, cases such as these are largely swept under the rug by the media, and some lawyers go so far as to say that they will never be taken seriously because the plaintiffs have no personal stake in the lawsuit itself. Contrast this to Obama’s first run for the presidency, and we see a remarkable difference in the level of “outrage” on the part of American citizens. Back then, Donald Trump was certainly among the loudest of the voices calling out for Obama’s birth certificate to be released, but he was only one of many. The conspiracy theory that Obama was not an American citizen had gained an incredible amount of traction across the country. Billboards, like
PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ/ FORT WORTH STAR VIA TNS
Ted Cruz, born in Canada, has cited his mother’s citizenship in defense of his eligibility for president.
The problem is that vagueness in our Constitution’s language is creating a situation where we are publically constructing an image of what we call “The American.” one which read “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” in California put up by WorldNetDaily, a conservative website, made sure that the typical American voter could not possibly forget about the scrutiny that Obama as a candidate was placed under. In response, Obama had to publically release these documents not once, but twice; in 2008, and again in 2011 when his critics still weren’t satisfied with the
short form document he initially released. We simply don’t see this level of scrutiny placed on Ted Cruz, simply because he doesn’t “look” like he’s a foreigner. Ted Cruz is a conservative, Christian family man, and to many people this comes across as “safe”—so much so that the issue of precisely which country he comes from ends up being less important.
I understand that the Naturalborn-citizen clause was specifically designed by the Founding Fathers to protect the United States from extra-national influence, and because Ted Cruz has no diplomatic ties to Canada, it would therefore be difficult to label him as a threat to American interests. However, this argument was virtually nonexistent during Barack Obama’s first bid for the presidency. Despite him being quite open with who his mother was and what she meant to him—she was a white anthropologist born in Wichita, Kansas—the cries for proof of Obama’s true nationality persisted. Cruz’s excuse that his mother was born in the United States was, for some reason, unacceptable when Obama found
himself in similar circumstances. And therein lies the problem; Obama had to prove that he was an American despite lack of evidence to the contrary, whereas Ted Cruz doesn’t need to do so despite having the exact opposite situation. The problem here is that vagueness in our Constitution’s language is creating a situation where we are publically constructing the image of what we call “The American,” and frankly it’s becoming ridiculous. We’ve reached a point in our nation’s development where it would be foolish to hold up one individual or a group of individuals as being representative of the entire population. It works for places like China, Great Britain and Russia, but we have serious discrepancy if, in a nation with a moniker such as “the melting pot of the world,” the type of person who doesn’t have to prove his “Americanness” is the white Christian man. To make the matter even more ridiculous, whites are projected to make up less than 50 percent of the nation’s population by the year 2045, according to projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. I am not suggesting that the Constitution needs to do away with the National-born-citizen clause, but we as a people need to cement what the clause actually means. Article II Section One Clause Five establishes, but does not define, the natural-born pre-requisite. There is far too much ambiguity and a lack of definite, descriptive language that allows for the uninformed and the paranoid to dictate who gets to be an American. Regardless of whether or not the dispute regarding Obama’s birthplace harmed his image, it is unfair to expect that anyone should fall under such scrutiny because they do not “look” like what we call an American. The problem will only replicate itself the next time someone who is Mexican-American, Asian-American or Arab-American wants to run for president.
Three Reasons Why We Need More Queer Classes Everyone in some way engages with sexuality. When one engages with a taboo, they might see that it is not a taboo at all.
Chrissy Pusz Staff Writer
During the fall 2015 semester I had the distinct privilege of being enrolled in Intro to Queer Theory, taught by Benjamin Dunning, professor of theology at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC). From introducing ourselves on the first day to taking a class picture on the last day, every Wednesday afternoon our class gathered for three glorious hours of discourse and anecdote, quickly building a cohort and something of a family. The semester was filled with vegan cupcakes, had-to-be-there oneliners, intimate personal stories and a formula for diagramming Judith Butler’s sentences. In short, it was a wild ride from start to finish. But I’m not writing this article to reminisce on our class’s instant chemistry or the fun of concealing a book with a man’s parted butt cheeks on the cover on the MTA (both were excellent). I’m writing this article as a love letter to one of the most academically stimulating classes I have taken at Fordham, and as a call-to-action to Fordham’s course makers to bring classes like this one into the mainstream curriculum. Currently, Intro to Queer Theory is offered sporadically and I believe it should be offered annually The first reason why Fordham should offer Intro to Queer Theory is because the course is so academically rich. While the precise subjects of many queer theory texts are
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTA KENNEDY VIA FLICKR
Queer Theory courses are a great way to engage with social issues.
concerns regarding gender, sexuality and expression, the overarching theme of queer theory is the study of people who do not conform to social norms. The issues addressed in courses like Intro to Queer Theory are not resolved; they are still alive today and deserve to be grappled with. Just a few examples of issues we discussed in class include: social violence against cis-feminine and transitioning bodies, medical violence against intersex bodies, the whitewashing of queer history, the significance of the language we use to identify ourselves and the politics of queer sex acts. These issues are not noteworthy because they are
steeped in a long history of intolerance and violence (even though they are) but because they are relevant and affecting the lives of people today. Furthermore, there is so much excellent discourse relevant to queer theory that any syllabus a professor creates is bound to overflow with juicy texts. Our particular syllabus included the work of great theorists concerned with the politics of sexuality and pleasure including Foucault and Freud as well as great theorists concerned with specifically queer issues including Rubin, Halperin, Butler, Sedgwick, FaustoSterling and Muñoz. The second reason why Fordham
should offer Intro to Queer Theory is because the course structure is so well aligned with Fordham’s mission. From day one of New Student Orientation, students learn that Fordham is devoted to critical reading, critical writing and critical speaking, and in no class were these more fulfilled than Intro to Queer Theory. As I mentioned before, our syllabus was filled with an abundance of dense texts, pushing us to read and reread essays, paragraphs and many times even single sentences. Because theory is so argumentative, there is no way to read it other than critically. Our class was also focused on writing, with an emphasis on frequency, not length. Every week we handed in a short response paper allowing us to practice and improve our writing in preparation for the longer-form essays that constituted our final. Possibly most importantly, our class was very devoted to speaking. In conjunction with briefly presenting our response papers to the class, we dedicated most of our class time to actively discussing the texts and engaging with one another as intellectual peers. Lectures on historical
context and certain language choices were given as needed, but the majority of the class was devoted to us posing and grappling with the questions the text presented. The third reason why Fordham should offer Intro to Queer Theory is because the course is not as niche as the title may suggest. One does not need to be queer in order to engage with queer issues. One could spend an academic career parsing and discussing what exactly the term ‘queer’ encompasses, but very broadly something that is queer is something that is othered in society. Every student at Fordham, whether or not they have devoted time to think about it, lives and functions in the society that queer theory analyzes and critiques. Everyone in some way engages with gender. Everyone in some way engages with sexuality. Everyone in some way engages with the factors that add nuance to these conversations (race, socioeconomic standing, ability, etc.). When one engages with a taboo, one might come to see that it is in fact not that taboo at all. Students who identify as queer finally get to see themselves represented in these classes and students who do not identify as queer get to learn about and better understand their friends and colleagues. Queer theory is not about super complicated books or creating words to describe one’s identity; queer theory is about removing the stigma from the Other, subverting norms and exercising empathy. And, Fordham students and administrators, what could be better than that?
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Opinions
Snow Emergencies Need Better Responses Demetrios Stratis Staff Writer
If I have learned anything from being born and raised in New York City and from going to public schools, it is that you can almost always expect to be disappointed by the response of the City. New York is infamous for having relatively few snow days over the last few years. According to Animal New York, there have been only 11 snow days since 1978. In the 2000s alone, there have only been five snow days so far. Unfortunately, the city administration has often showed that it was not up to the task of accurately declaring a snow day, or providing grace periods for its beleaguered boroughs. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg prematurely called snow days in March of 2001 for a storm that only dropped 3.5 inches of snow, and in March of 2009, when he closed schools in response to a storm of 8.3 inches. For every premature closing there have been events where the City, in the face of a large snowstorm, has kept schools opened and not declared snow days. This brings us to the current aftermath of Winter Storm Jonas, a storm that rivals many past ones as one of the biggest snowstorms on the East Coast. For the city itself, it has been the second-largest snowstorm to strike. NYC received almost 27 inches of snow, and even greater amounts were reported in areas of Queens such as Jackson Heights. At least 14 states on the East Coast received at least one foot of snow in total, a clear indicator of the strength and extent of the storm. With all
ANDRONIKA ZIMMERMAN /THE OBSERVER
Winter Storm Jonas crippled public transportation and dumped more than 30 inches of snow in New York.
these facts in mind, it is understandable why New Yorkers were infuriated at the instructions provided by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the blatant lack of attention to detail provided to the outlying boroughs—particularly Queens and Staten Island, where streets were still blanketed with snow; untouched by the ploughs. Also controversial was the NYPD declaration of a travel ban, an act that some have been calling “martial law,” due to the bluntness of the announcement and the promise that it would be upholded via arrests. This ban was promptly lifted at 7 a.m. the following morning, and it was
clarified that this ban did not apply to walking, running and biking. The complaining parties claim that it is a sign of the City administration blatantly misusing their powers. The true issue with the reaction of the city administration to Jonas was the decision to open public schools and businesses when some boroughs were still suffering from transportation problems and unploughed masses of snow. That Monday, Staten Islanders were still shoveling in the streets and injuring their backs in an attempt to clean the roads and streets in response to the slow pace of aid from the Sanitation Department. The borough was character-
ized by unplowed streets for several hours before the snow plows arrived finally. In many parts of Queens, there were 34 inches of snow, and yet the least amount of help was received. Driving conditions were unsafe in many parts, and given the number of unplowed roads, the decision to open public schools was met with a lot of anger. De Blasio has consistently received criticism for keeping schools opened since the February 2014 snowstorm, when he supported School Chancellor Carmen Farina as she claimed that “it’s an absolutely beautiful day.” On said beautiful day, school attendance went down from 90 percent to almost 44
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percent with several inches of snow left on unplowed streets throughout the boroughs. Compounding this blatant obliviousness to the dangers of commuting in the weather conditions, Farina explained that schools were opened so that “students could have a hot meal at school that they might not have at home.” Two years later, De Blasio repeated the same exact gaffe in opening the schools and not providing enough aid to the boroughs. When asked why he did this in light of events, he replied, “We cannot say in this neighborhood there’s school, in that neighborhood there’s no school. It doesn’t work that way. We made a decision that was in the best interest of the overall city.” This type of thinking is disastrous, because it ignores that conditions can be different for different regions, and that penalizing entire boroughs is definitely not in the interest of the city When people cannot commute to work or school safely and people’s jobs are put on the line, excuses tend to fall flat. I commuted to school on that Monday after Jonas. It took several hours for me to enter the city by an MTA bus because I live in Whitestone, Queens. It took me almost three hours to enter the city in heavy, congested traffic and it took me almost four hours to return home later that night. My bus route went through the unplowed neighborhood of Jackson Heights in Queens, an area that received 34 inches of snow. I saw firsthand the quantities of snow and how woefully addressed the issue had been by the City. It is crucial that the City begin to understand that unrealistic provisions make things so much more difficult for its own populace during times of crisis.
Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture Editor Rachel Jarvis — rjarvis2@fordham.edu
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
“The Color Purple”: Classic Returns to Broadway By CASEY ROBINSON Contributing Writer
After 11 years, “The Color Purple” has returned to the stage with a revival the New York Times called “A Miracle on Broadway.” This musical interpretation of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel of the same name follows the story of Celie, an African-American woman living in rural Georgia in the 1930s, struggling to overcome racism, sexism and abuse throughout her life. Black History Month, a long-standing cultural tradition in America, was institutionalized in 1976 after 50 years of annual commemorative weeks in honor of black history. It has since become a month-long celebration. The beginning of this commemorative holiday makes February the perfect time to see and appreciate the magic of “The Color Purple.” Alice Walker, a Georgia-born author, poet and activist, is best known for her epistolary novel “The Color Purple,” which was published in 1982. Spanning the course of 40 years, the story follows Celie through her life: her childhood, during which time her father abused her in every conceivable way; her marriage to Albert, a man who does not love her, but uses her as a housemaid and scapegoat; and her struggle to reunite with her sister, who traveled to Africa on a missions trip. The novel graphically depicts the struggles of its protagonist and her friends and family, with intense sequences of abuse, racism, violence and sexuality. The book itself became the target of many censorship campaigns and earned a place on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. Three years after the novel was published a movie adaptation of “The Color Purple” came to the silver screen. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Whoopi Goldberg as the protagonist, as well as Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Some people questioned the choice of bringing in Spielberg to direct, and ultimately criticized him for his choice to downplay the pro-lesbian themes from the novel. Despite this, the movie was well
ANDRONIKA ZIMMERMAN /THE OBSERVER
Danielle Brooks, Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson Star in the revival of “The Color Purple.”
received by viewers and critically acclaimed, earning 10 Academy Award nominations. Twenty years after the premiere of the film and 23 years after the novel’s first release, a musical adaptation of the novel, based mostly on the film, opened at the Broadway Theatre in New York in December of 2005. Gary Griffin directed and Oprah Winfrey continued her association with the story as one of three producers. The show received 11 Tony Award Nominations including Best Musical and Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Rhonda LaChanze Sapp, who performs with the stage name ‘LaChanze’ received the Tony for Best Leading Actress for her portrayal of Celie. Since its original Broadway debut, “The Color Purple” has seen three national tours and a London production. In January of 2015, the
The book itself became the target of many censorship campaigns and earned a place on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. producers of the London production, including Oprah Winfrey, announced that the show would be returning to Broadway. Jennifer Hudson made her Broadway debut in the role of Shug, Celie’s friend and love-interest from the novel and film. Cynthia Erivo reprised her role as Celie from the London production. Previews for the revival began in November of 2015, with the show officially opening in December. Since its previews, the revival has received glimmering reviews, including enthusiastic praise
from Ben Brantley, chief theater critic of The New York Times. The revival of “The Color Purple” has come back to Broadway at an incredibly appropriate time. Between the original musical debut in 2005 and the revival in 2015, America has seen social advancements that intimately connect to the themes the musical explores. In 2008, America elected its first African-American president; in 2013 that same president reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which sets a standard for
the prosecution of crimes against women and establishes the Office for Violence Against Women in the Department of Justice. In 2015, the United States Federal Government legalized same-sex marriage. Now that “The Color Purple” is back on Broadway, viewers can reflect on the strides this nation has made to correct the errors of the past by watching Celie overcome the adversities in her life. February is a time to connect with our collective past as a nation. Now is a time for celebration—to acknowledge the victories we have claimed and the struggles we have overcome. “The Color Purple” is in itself a triumph and victory, and the perfect way to celebrate Black History Month. “The Color Purple” is set to run through May of 2016 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
The Comma Interrobang Undeclared Studies By CONNOR MANNION News Co-Editor/ Asst. Literary Editor
Bret fidgeted in his chair as he waited to meet with the associate assistant interim dean for junior students. He was meeting with Assoc. Asst. Int. Dean Mackey because Dean Ringheim was only in on Tuesdays, and Asst. Dean Riley had been fired for only helping political science majors get the classes they wanted. Likewise, Assoc. Dean West had been fired for helping everyone but political science majors graduate. In fact, West had been deleting polysci classes from the curriculum to facilitate this. So the university had consolidated the three positions in Assoc. Asst. Int. Dean Mackey. Mackey was a new experiment in creating adjunct deans. There was a plan at Rogers College to even name an Adjunct President of the University by the end of the next year. “So Bret, I’ve noticed that you forgot to declare a major last year?” “No, my major is up there.” “... It says undeclared.” “Yes.” There was a pause. “That is my major.”
Bret actually had forgotten to declare a major, but he was trying to bluff because he hadn’t swallowed his pride yet. And he thought he could trick the dean into switching his major. “Well I’ll check the records, but I don’t think… oh, there it is.” “What?” Bret stared at the interim dean. As it turns out, the official records of the college had never been corrected to say that “undeclared” wasn’t a major. Undeclared studies was a little known part of the college. Despite its lesser known status, it was one of the better regarded programs at Rogers College. They even claimed to have a number of famous alumni, including Academy Award-winning actor Christopher Walken. There was actually no way of verifying this, as the records for Undeclared Studies were intrinsically hard to find. The only way people were accepted into the program was if a student either intentionally did not declare a major, or simply forgot to declare when necessary. Also unhelpful was that
Walken himself would only smile cryptically when asked about the major program. However, there were some drawbacks to this major. Members seemingly just blended into the background of the college from then on, even though they could take any classes they wanted to take. They just became those kids in the back of the class who never spoke up, but always got good grades. They never participated in anything but got all the recognition. They were the kids who you vaguely remember from college that went on to be even more successful. Bret thought that seemed like a fair enough trade, since he never really talked to anyone here or made any friends. Now he would be on top of the world. Nothing could stop him. He didn’t have to worry about declaring his major, because undeclared was a major. He could take whatever classes he wanted, it felt like a dream. Bret woke up. He slept through his planned meeting with the dean.
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Faces of Fordham
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
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FORDHAM’S MODEL OF THE MOMENT
CLARE TALKS KANYE, COLLEGE AND HER CAREER RAM ON THE RUNWAY FROM PAGE 1
fresh-faced model. Most recently, Cirillo scored a major campaign with American Eagle. Just take a quick trip over to the Times Square AE billboards to see for yourself. When Cirillo met me in the Atrium, she was wearing a slouchy baseball tee paired with black leggings and over-the-knee boots. Her defining, golden red hair was swept into a low ponytail, and her envy-inducing freckles looked as if they were perfectly painted on. Cirillo is the epitome of the girl next door, completely presenting herself with “model-off-duty” poise. Her effervescent personality was immediately noticeable as she began to discuss her career with me. Cirillo stepped into the modeling scene only two years ago, and what a busy two years she has had. Before transferring to FCLC, Cirillo attended Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Cirillo was scouted by a family friend who encouraged her to pursue a modeling career, and with the support of her mother and Fordham graduate father, she made the move to New York City. “I never planned on modeling or moving to the city, it just kind of fell into my lap,” she said. After auditioning in front of a six person panel, Cirillo booked her first job with Kohl’s. “I didn’t think anything of it. I [thought], ‘Oh, I’m not going to get that, that was my first audition.’ And I ended up getting it,” she said. In the past decade, the industry has overseen sufficient change, as modeling is transforming into more than just posing for a camera. Social media now plays a prominent role in the industry and Cirillo notes that her success is greatly influenced by her digital presence. With 18.5 thousand Instagram followers (@clarecirillo), Cirillo often has her profile to thank when she lands new jobs. She gave me a modest, “Eh,” when I applauded her on this impressive amount of followers. After auditions and castings, she told me “the first thing they do when you leave the room is look on your Instagram. And that’s your portfolio in a sense.” Cirillo keeps her contact information accessible on all of her social media accounts, so companies can easily get in touch with her. She smirks, “I know it’s really silly, but you really have to be cautious of what you post and what you don’t post, and you have to be active on social media
all the time if you want to get people to notice you.” Cirillo’s work with American Eagle even began this way, as the Creative Director stumbled upon her profile and immediately booked her for a spring transition shoot in Pittsburgh. Cirillo proved herself in this first shoot and the company gave her their full Spring campaign, which was shot over a week in Big Sur, California. In addition to American Eagle, Cirillo actively works on e-commerce shoots for Target, Kohl’s, and Amazon. Although she sticks to mostly commercial work, Cirillo has also been featured in editorials in Seventeen Magazine and Interview Magazine. Cirillo matter-of-factly laid out the industry to me, explaining that there are two types of models: commercial and editorial. She said, “To be really successful you want to be a model that can do both editorial and commercial. I always use Karlie Kloss as an example, because she can literally do anything. If I were to be in a Vogue editorial, it just wouldn’t really look right, because I don’t have that look to me. Which is fine. I’m totally great with [working for] all American brands.” Recently, Cirillo made a transition into runway modeling with a debut in New York Fashion Week 2015. One of her first shows? Kanye West’s Yeezy presentation, alongside Kylie Jenner and Bella Hadid. As if being a part of the show isn’t crazy enough in itself, Cirillo detailed the audition to me in the most cool and collected manner. She recounted that she was one of many girls who showed up for the audition and, humble per usual, she was not expecting to be chosen. She says without hesitation that she stuck around mainly “to peep the scene.” She described the audition experience as intense and quick, telling me, “we had to change into a nude leotard. And, basically… they just photograph you and ask you [two questions] about yourself, ‘Where are you from? What’s your name? Ok, get out.” However, Cirillo was approached by panel members who were intrigued by her style. The panel was excited that she was a New York local and were attracted to her cool, down to earth personality. Cirillo was then invited to a fitting the next morning, where West himself was styling her. I was star-struck when she told me, “I go to the fitting and Kanye is there, and I was like ‘holy shit.’ … He was literally putting things on me.” Cirillo explained that she spent a full day at the fitting without any solidification that she had received the job in the show. Her eyes widened, “The thing with fashion week is that everything happens literally in two days.” After the stressful but exciting fitting, Cirillo received a call that night at 10:30 p.m. saying she had been booked and to be ready for the show at 6 a.m. the following morning. Cirillo laughs, “that’s fashion week in a nutshell. You really don’t know what you’re doing until the night before, which is very stressful.” Cirillo also walked in Banana Republic, Claudia Lee, Vivienne Tam, Concept Korea and Matthew Marano during NYFW Fall/Winter 2015. As much as Cirillo enjoyed her NYFW experience, she plans on sticking to commercial modeling. While
GETTY IMAGES/CLARE CIRILLO
Cirillo walking in Vivienne Tam, Concept Korea, Mathieu Mirano, Banana Republic, Yeezy and Claudia Li.
Claire Cirillo’s work with American Eagle Outfitters started wh
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hen the creative director stumbled upon her Instagram account.
THE OBSERVER February 11, 2016
Faces of Fordham
runway modeling may have more pizzazz, Cirillo says there are intense expectations regarding fitness and weight. “It’s a lot of pressure leading up to it. Not that they [told me,] ‘You have to be really skinny,’ but you definitely have to start watching what you eat a month before and getting in shape for it,” she explains. This, to her commercial clients, is a problem, as they want their models to be healthy. Cirillo feels she can be herself in commercial modeling, sharing, “This is my body. And this is what commercial [clients] like.” In her words, “They like girls that can be related to.” As for NYFW 2016, Cirillo’s presence is undetermined, as her agency will be showing her portfolio to casting directors and clients in the coming days. Following graduation, Cirillo sees herself continuing her modeling career, as well as focusing on fashion blogging with her budding site, When In Manhattan (wheninmanhattan.com). Cirillo says her blog enables her to have “a platform that people can just go to and see what [I’m] up to and really get a sense of [my] style and fashion.” She adds, “You can definitely make a living blogging.” For now, Cirillo will continue her balancing act of being a full-time student and model as she continues to take in the exciting feelings that came along with being recognized by friends, family and even acquaintances. The 45 minutes I spent with Cirillo were not enough, as her larger-than-life presence made every minute fly by. Cirillo is the girl that so many yearn to be: charming, modest, funny and, best of all, real. In an industry that is often clouded by negative stigmas, it is a rarity to discover such a driven and down to earth “cool girl.” Cirillo’s energy and passion are contagious, and there is no doubt that she will make her mark on the industry. Clare Cirillo is a model of the moment with so much to come.
PHOTO COURTESY OF AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS
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THE OBSERVER February 11, 2015
Arts & Culture
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Film Focus: Young Love For Valentine’s Day By LIAM HABER Contributing Writer
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, here are some suggestions for two movies to watch on this most romantic day of the year. Brooklyn (2015) Now in theaters is “Brooklyn,” the story of an Irish immigrant who moves to New York City in the early 1950s. Based on the novel of the same name by Colm Tóibín, “Brooklyn” is the best-reviewed movie of 2015 and is nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Starring Irish actress Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey, the film tells the story of one girl trying to follow her heart when faced with two great opportunities. After coming to New York, Eilis meets Tony Fiorello, a young Italian man from Queens, and they quickly form a strong bond, him teaching her about American (as well as his Italian-American) culture. However, when problems arise back home in Ireland, Eilis needs to decide what matters most: her real family in her home country or the adopted family in this new land. “Brooklyn” is gorgeous, complete with breathtaking cinematography and a script that sings with the spirit of New York in the 1950s. But while the technical aspects of the movie are beautiful on their own, it is Ronan’s performance in the film that shines brightest. Movies about the American Dream have been made for nearly as long as film has existed, but Ronan plays Eilis with a sense of authenticity and truth that’s often lost. As an actual Irish immigrant, the 21 year old Ronan doesn’t just read the script she is handed, but is able to relate to the material as well, providing us with an outstanding performance that demands to be seen. She carries the film, aided by Tony, her love interest, played by Emery Cohen If you’re looking to go to the theater, this is the best bet for a solid romantic film out right now. While
PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE RHODES VIA FLICKR
“Moonrise Kingdom” is the perfect movie to curl up with this Valentines Day.
the romance is the core of the movie, it never becomes overly dramatic or cliched. Instead, it remains a sweet and touching love story about the city we all love. Even the hardest of hearts will be softened by “Brooklyn.”
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) If you’re looking for a night in wiIf you’re looking for a night in with Netflix instead, “Moonrise Kingdom” might be one of your best options. A story of young love and many laughs, “Moonrise Kingdom” happens to have what might be the
greatest set of child actors in a movie ever. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward play Sam and Suzy, a pair of kids who live on a fictional island in New England. After a long distance romance becomes serious, the 12 year olds run away from their respective homes and attempt to make it on their own. This leads to Sam leaving behind his scout troop (led by Bruce Willis and Edward Norton) and Suzy abandoning her large family, who lives on the island (the parents played by Frances McDormand and Bill Murray), in favor of the woods of New Penzance.
However, the true genius of the movie isn’t solely in the number of outstanding actors in the cast, but in how much love the film shows its characters and the story they tell. Turning a romance into something much more sincere and heartfelt than is usually given to movies led by young actors, “Moonrise Kingdom” is simultaneously serious and hilarious, with one of the smartest scripts ever. Written and directed by Wes Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”), the comedy is funny and the tragedy is sad, which is all that can be
hoped for in any movie. But “Moonrise Kingdom” is not just any movie. There is something about rooting for a romance like this to succeed that makes the film incredibly exciting for such a small scale story, which is only aided by great performances from such strong actors and actresses of all ages. A movie as sincere, goofy and heartwarming as “Moonrise Kingdom” is an excellent bet for your Valentine’s Day. AMC and Regal Cinemas movie tickets are on sale in Lowenstein Room 408 every Monday from 2:30 -5:30 p.m. and Friday from 2-4 p.m.
Ailey II Spring Season, Right Around the Corner Junior company previews new work for spring season beginning in March By SABRINA POLKOWSKI Contributing Writer
Just off a tour of 25 cities in the United States as well as Italy and France, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s junior company, Ailey II, gave the audience a taste of the season they have in store for this March. The company previewed four new pieces, which will be performed this season along with some old favorites, at the Ailey Citigroup Theater on Tuesday, Jan. 26. At the start of the program, Ailey II artistic director Troy Powell stepped onto the stage and promptly exclaimed, “Look, I’m wearing a suit!” to the amusement of the audience. He then went on to introduce his company. The first piece previewed was titled “In & Out,” choreographed by Jean Emile. “In & Out” began with a duet featuring company members Nathaniel Hunt and Annellyse Munroe, and grew into the full company’s stunning portrayal of contemporary life. The piece integrated silence and stillness with movement and music in an inventive way. The second piece of the night, “Gemeos,” choreographed by Jamar Roberts, stood in stark contrast to the first. A duet between Lloyd A. Boyd III and Fordham/Ailey BFA senior Gabriel Hyman, the per-
COURTNEY CELESTE SPEARS; PHOTO BY EDUARDO PATINO, NYC
Ailey II’s Spring Season at the Ailey Citigroup Theater runs from March 30 to April 10.
formance was a comical portrayal of sibling dynamics. “Gemeos” translates to “twins” in Portuguese. Hyman said, “It comes naturally for Lloyd and myself, because we have that relationship in real life.” The audience adored “Gêmeos,” cheering louder and longer for it than any other piece.
Next on the program was “Something Tangible,” choreographed by Ray Mercer. The piece began with a haunting trio featuring Hunt and Hyman, as well as Fordham/Ailey BFA senior Courtney Celeste Spears. The rest of the company joined them later in the piece and created a visual
manifestation of the spectrum of emotions that humans feel, reflecting a depth of feeling that can seem almost tangible. The final piece of the night, “I Am The Road,” choreographed by Kyle “JustSole” Clark, was a first for the company—never before had Ailey II performed a hip hop piece
until this season. “I Am The Road” was an upbeat, lively and soulful take on hope and inspiration, depicting “the struggles of being an artist,” as JustSole said in his introduction of the piece. At the reception following the performance, the dancers were thrilled as they greeted their supporters with hugs and smiles. Hyman and Spears were particularly ecstatic as they celebrated their homecoming from their first tour as well as the start of their first Ailey II season. “I actually started in hip hop, but kind of strayed away from it coming to Ailey, so getting back into it was so much fun,” said Hyman of the first hip hop piece in the company’s history. “It’s very rare for a company, especially a second company to have contemporary ballet work, classic modern work and hip hop work so we’re lucky.” “It’s so funny because our teachers tell us all the time, they try and prepare you for it, but there’s nothing like actually doing it,” said Spears about her first time touring with the company. “It’s surreal. It’s surreal to travel the world with the art of dance.” Ailey II’s Spring Season at the Ailey Citigroup Theater runs from March 30 to April 10. Tickets go on sale on Wed., Feb. 10. To purchase tickets, visit alvinailey.org/aileyii or call 866-811-4111.
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Arts & Culture
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
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Black History Month Must-Reads By BRIANNA GOODMAN Copy Editor
February is Black History Month, and as is true with the other 11 months of the year, it is a wonderful time to dive into the literary works of black writers addressing race in America. To distill the contribution of black writers and thinkers into a single, 700-word article would be an absurd task, so instead, here are just four books, spanning various genres, that prompt readers to acknowledge the reality of this nation’s history and of its present. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me (Penguin Random House), winner of the National Book Award, is a part-memoir, part-essay that investigates the American construction of “race,” a term he cites as “the child of racism, not the father.” Structuring the book as a letter to his 15-year-old son, Coates examines the implications of inhabiting a black body in a nation whose present continues to reflect the shameful legacy of its past. This book is a thorough, honest assessment of the state of racism in our society. Weaving stories of his own past and present with investigations into the country’s larger history, Coates’s book is an excellent portrayal of not only the facts of racism, but also the visceral impact that such prejudice creates. Toni Morrison called this book “required reading”—a reason in itself to buy this book. The cover of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press), a single black hoodie on an otherwise white background, prepares its reader for what is to come: a haunting, lyrical presenta-
JESS HANLEY/THE OBSERVER
Recommended reading for the month of February.
tion of the ugly realities of racism. A mix of poetry, photography, anecdote and essay-like prose, this work is a meditation on the roles race and racism play in everyday life. A neighbor calls the cops on the narrator’s babysitter, whom the neighbor has deemed suspicious; a therapist assumes a new patient is trespassing on her property; a woman is called the name of the only other black woman in her office. These are several of the many kinds of microaggressions that Rankine’s work illuminates—instances that must be acknowledged in order to create a self-aware society that wishes to stop the perpetuation of thinly (and at times not so thinly) veiled racism. This work has won far
more awards than I could list in a single paragraph, but suffice it to say that it has earned its place in history. Fortunately for Fordham students, Rankine will visit Fordham University in April to give a reading for the Reid Writers of Color Series. For an examination into the criminal justice system and its explicit imprisonment of black men, read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press). Presenting a thorough collection of legal research and data, Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and professor of law, argues that the war on drugs and the practice of mass incarceration has served as a new tactic for an old practice: what
Alexander calls, as quoted in the New York Times, “racial and social control.” Her assertion that mass incarceration deliberately perpetuates a racial “caste system” is a controversial one, which some have disputed; what is widely accepted, though, particularly in a time of bipartisan efforts to reform the criminal justice system, is the reality that mass incarceration has disproportionately affected black lives. Read this book if you’re interested in delving into the history of the war on drugs and its place in our nation’s racial narrative. And finally, this list would be incomplete without a work of fiction by the Nobel Prize laureate and historically-minded Toni Morrison. For an exploration into the ways
our history defines our present, revisit Beloved (Random House), the story of Sethe, a former slave, who is—literally—haunted by the events of her past. After escaping Sweet Home, the farm where she worked in captivity, Sethe and her daughter navigate life in a home haunted by the ghost of her baby. Playing with form, voice, perspective and a nonlinear sense of time, Morrison draws the reader deep into the world of a woman whose hardships mark her in ways she cannot escape. You might choose to follow this with a reading of Morrison’s new novel, God Help the Child (Penguin Random House) which, uniquely for a Morrison novel, takes place in the present day.
Not Too Young to Love David Bowie By IREM SINDEL Contributing Writer
The death of David Bowie shook the world. He passed away on Jan. 10, 2016, after an 18-month battle with cancer. Even the younger generations who were never directly exposed to the classics felt the intense shock. On the chilly Sunday morning of his passing, classics such as “Space Oddity” and “Let’s Dance” were blasted through open windows from the streets of Soho to the Upper West Side. The sorrow and deep appreciation for the life that Bowie lived could be felt throughout the city. People in Manhattan immediately began to set flowers, records, posters and letters at the base of his penthouse apartment at 285 Lafayette St. in Soho. It started with a single bouquet left by a loyal fan and grew into a touching memorial just hours later, lining the entire base of the building. This was the impact of the man who was somehow able to bring his entire imagination to life. There has even been a mural painted on the corner of Kenmare Street and Mott Street downtown. Manhattan is paying tribute to an inimitable artist, an outlandish personality and a brilliantly intuitive and cultural icon. A lot of people know David Bowie as the guy who sang “Heroes” in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Some know him as the guy Ross Geller compared himself to when he got an earring on “Friends.” Most millennials shrug him off as the guy in their parents’ record collection. However, David Bowie was so much more than just a cultural reference or a vinyl in the attic from the 80s— Bowie encouraged raw honesty and strangeness, and he taught people that they should
PHOTO BY IREM SINDEL/THE OBSERVER
Heartbroken fans create makeshift memorial outside Bowie’s Soho apartment.
recklessly and unapologetically be themselves. The drama, the passion and the bizarre, extraordinary creativity he unleashed onto the loyal fans of the rock ‘n’ roll genre established him as a legend. Berfin Celik, a freshman at Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC) ‘19, was not a frequent listener of Bowie, but respected his art as a whole. When asked about Bowie, Celik stated, “I
do not pay attention to each of his works like I would for artists today. David Bowie is someone I look at as an influence and inspiration, but I can’t specifically pinpoint what he did musically that affects me. His style was eclectic, and I admire his outgoing personality.” Our generation never got the chance to appreciate Bowie as much as it should have. Modern pop and alternative
rock artists have stolen the spotlight from preeminent icons. This had really held millennials back from respecting the true impact of seemingly antiquated music. Bowie was not only an intensely wild, symbol but he was a limitless energy trapped on Earth. He was a man with so many wonderfully imaginative ideas, and his passion for space and life amazed people
consistently. Bowie didn’t just make art—he was art. Gregory GoveaLopez, FCLC `18, was one of many who grew up listening to Bowie. “I don’t think kids our age understand what a huge loss this was,” he says. “The kids who actually got into those oldies and classics were lucky enough to have experienced his music. There will never be another Bowie.”
Features
Features Editors Alanna Kilkeary—alannamartine@gmail.com Alysha Kundanmal––akundanmal@fordham.edu Hansi Weedagama––hweedagama@fordham.edu
February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
YIPING HOLLY WANG /THE OBSERVER
Gillian Nelson, FCLC ‘19 (top), Katie Coombs, FCLC ‘19 (bottom left), and Ruby Buddemeyer, FCLC ‘19 (bottom right), are contributing writers of FLASH Magazine.
FLASH Magazine Q&A By SARAH-ASHLEY CERVINI Contributing Writer
You’ve heard of the Fordham publications The Observer, The Ram, The Ampersand, The Comma, and maybe even Mode Magazine and now... FLASH. For Fordham University students obsessed with all things fashion, FLASH is an online source for beauty, food, fitness, art and NYC culture. Emily Tiberio, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’17, and Kathleen-Mae Ramas, FCLC ’17, are co-editors-in-chief. They stress the importance of FLASH being a creative outlet for students from both campuses. The online magazine allows Fordham students to express their interests and gain valuable experience. Tiberio and Ramas are in charge of every aspect of FLASH Magazine. Their ongoing roles are exciting yet stressful. “We create our production schedules, organize events and photo shoots and oversee all section editors. It is also our responsibility to keep the voice and the vision for the magazine, one that is true to
what FLASH is,” Tiberio explained. In addition to Tiberio and Ramas, the FLASH Magazine team is made up of two co-editors for each section, two online editors, creative directors, an assistant creative director and contributors — writers, photographers, models, and stylists. FLASH Magazine is divided into three sections — fashion, beauty, and culture that - target Fordham students of all identities. The beauty section consists of beauty gurus and junkies who speak on makeup, skincare and fitness trends. As for the culture section, readers are able to find new and exciting ways to explore New York City. When it comes to figuring out specific topics to write about in each section, writers pitch a list of ideas which is then considered by the editorial team. The section editors construct an idea based on the pitched articles or inspiration they have acquired and decide on a loose theme that can include each article. Oftentimes, Tiberio and Ramas already have ideas going into the semester of a specific feature story. For example, New York Fashion Week
“ ...we find it really
exciting if we can also have viewers outside of Fordham.” EMILY TIBERIO, Co-Editor-in-
Chief of FLASH Magazine
(NYFW) is happening. In the fall 2015 issue, NYFW street style photos were featured on the front and back cover, and in the spring 2016 issue, there will be a feature on designer Meagan Ollari. One big question that arose while researching FLASH Magazine is why is FLASH Magazine online rather than in print? Tiberio stressed the importance of preserving “the beauty and integrity of the magazine with good quality printing.” Since it is very expensive to print, Tiberio and Ramas don’t want to sacrifice the magazine’s look to have it be printed. Ramas continues, saying their audience is “Each and every Ford-
ham student!” Tiberio even added, “Beyond that, we find it really exciting if we can also have viewers outside of Fordham.” Publishing digitally allows FLASH Magazine to be noticed by other students invested in this digital age. Because it’s online, posting a link on any form of social media to advertise FLASH is very easy and effective, according to Ramas. FLASH Magazine is published on the platform, issuu. Tiberio and Ramas receive email notifications when users on issuu save FLASH Magazine to their “stacks,” which is a list of magazines the user wants to read again. For right now, FLASH Magazine will continue to be digital. But, in the future, the editors are not opposed to print. Tiberio and Ramas both got involved in FLASH Magazine their freshman year. Tiberio was excited to get involved in the creative team as a graphic designer while Ramas was interested in getting experience in publication. Being a part of FLASH allowed Ramas to gain information about magazines she would have discovered otherwise.
As creative director her sophomore year, Tiberio “learned to work with tight deadlines and to collaborate with a team in order to create a magazine that fit the vision of the team and the image of FLASH.” As soon as Tiberio and Ramas were promoted to co-editors-inchief, both learned to direct, manage and organize a team and a publication. Ramas said she learned “how to be much more of a confident leader.” Both ladies have watched FLASH Magazine grow immensely and have learned a great deal of knowledge. They both hope to continue to be a factor of making FLASH Magazine a great source of all things fashion. They hope to expand the magazine’s audience and have students gain experience in publication because FLASH continues to grow each day. Recently, FLASH has become a club at Fordham. If you are interested in joining the FLASH Magazine team, make sure to like the FLASH Magazine Facebook page to stay up to date on upcoming events, outings and requests for models, photographers, etc.
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THE OBSERVER February 11, 2016
Features
13
The Importance of Diversity on the Screen By SHAHEEN TOKHI Staff Writer
What do you watch on TV when you want to see yourself? In this particular scenario, when I say “see yourself,” I am referring specifically to a person’s racial or ethnic identity and its presence on television. When you don’t want another overdone stereotype, and you’re tired of seeing your race being portrayed as just a token character or the sidekick, what show do you turn to? The answers might surprise you. For Jocelyn Hernandez, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’16 a Mexican-American student, the answer was clear. “Definitely Jane the Virgin” she answered without hesitation. “I just love the way that she’s portrayed ... She’s a very hard worker. She’s studious. Jane has an infant son, and she always puts him first while simultaneously following her own dreams.” It was a narrative that Hernandez hadn’t seen before. A minority as a main character who strays from stereotypes is what makes Jane special. Hernandez said, “Minorities in general are usually the secondary characters or the friends of the protagonist, and they’re not really developed as characters. If I did see a Latino it would be a maid or a blue collar worker. It’s great to see her portrayed as someone who’s gone to college, who’s pursuing writing.” When asked about the other kinds of TV stereotypes that bothered her, Hernandez said, “I hate how Latinas especially are always portrayed as spicy or sassy…. we’re not all like that. It’s been done before. There are different Latinos out there. We aren’t all the same.” Hernandez believes that television has gotten better with diversity, but there is still room for improvement. “Especially growing up ... I think it’s important to be able to see yourself on television succeeding.” Courtney Williams, a black student and FCLC ’16, Williams doesn’t often find herself actively seeking to see herself in a TV program. However, Williams did say, “I just see a reflection of a lack of a number of people.” Williams mentioned the idea of the token character who embodied the same stereotypes over and over again. Williams reflected on her TV watching experience as a child and mentioned, “Growing up, I’ve always been super goofy, and I [liked] to watch the little kids’ version of
JESSICA HANLEY /THE OBSERVER
“Jane the Virgin” breaks the stereotypes of Latino families on television.
SNL, which was “All That.” I really enjoyed watching Kenan Thompson and Kel….It wasn’t them just being some type of black stereotype, but it was just talent.” Williams was cautious not to dismiss the stereotyping that can go into creating comedy, even for children. She remembers being told often that people saw Raven from “That’s So Raven” in her, but the comparison never quite sat right with her. Williams discussed the impact of shows watched during childhood and how that can shape our narratives for the future. Williams said,“[Raven] became the stereotype in this type of trope character ... Specifically being this loud nail-snapping, lip-smacking, boisterous character ... It’s not that it’s not real, it’s just that, when you put an image out for children or anyone, if they don’t know [black] people, if they don’t have black people in their friend groups, they’re going to assume when they see Courtney,
that’s what Courtney should do.” As an international student from Mumbai, India, Devika Chandnani, FCLC ‘19, has always been a fan of American television. Chandnani said, “I was really excited when Priyanka Chopra came onto “Quantico.” It’s an American TV show, but she’s an Indian actress.” Chopra (already an acclaimed Bollywood star) plays Alex Parish, a young FBI recruit. In regards to diversity, Chandnani said, “I cannot recollect anything except the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’” Before Chopra’s crossover role as Alex Parish, the presence of Indian actors and actresses on Network television was sparse to nonexistent. What makes Alex special to Chandnani is the way that she is an FBI recruit who just happens to be also be Indian. Chandnani said, “Just because she’s from India doesn’t mean she has to dress differently or behave differently.”
Chandnani seemed hopeful about the future of diversity in American TV, but cautioned viewers. Shows that showcase diversity only give you a small taste of a specific culture. She warned, “That’s not all there is.” Michelle Ang, a Chinese American student and FCLC ’16, also chose a relatively new TV show as her go-to for seeing actors of similar ethnicity to her own. “The first show that comes to mind is ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ .... The main female character is played by Constance Wu, and she’s so funny and hilarious, but she plays the quintessential tiger mom,” said Ang. When asked about the state of Diversity on network television, Ang said, “It’s not leaps and bounds better, but it is evolving in a way that I think is beneficial to actors of color ... I feel like artists of color are starting to take more control and take a stand sort of for themselves, more so nowadays.” Though Ang is hopeful,
she said, “The seats of power are still held by straight cis white men, I believe, but that is changing.” Her greatest hope? Equality regardless of race. “I want to see actors of color play roles that don’t necessarily pertain to their race ... I don’t think we should forget about our cultural or ethnic differences. I feel like we should celebrate it, but also not let it get in the way of seeing each other for what we are, at our base, which is human.” If you find yourself still questioning why representation on television matters, Jonathan Zalman, Fordham professor of communications and media studies, put it like this, “Representation on television is important because television is a mass medium. What is shown on television could have a major influence on a viewer’s perspective on a certain gender or race or geography or group of people. If the representation is crap, then the message is crap.”
HBO: Now At A Fordham Dorm TV Near You By JULIA ENNIS Contributing Writer
As a college student in 2016, most of the “TV” watching you do probably doesn’t happen on a real TV. Chances are, you prefer to use your laptop or tablet to binge-watch “Making a Murderer” or whatever new series Netflix has released from the comfort of your own bed. And you’re not alone – cutting the cord, or foregoing cable in favor of subscriptions to online streaming services, is a huge trend amongst millennials. The New York Times reported that nearly one fifth of young adults do not use cable. For those of us who live on campus, this trend doesn’t really apply, considering that cable is a non-optional feature of rooming here at Fordham; students who do not use cable cannot “cut” it out, only, ignore it. But this year, Fordham’s IT department added a new feature to the cable that may just seduce students back to their TVs – free HBO. In November of last year, residents received an email stating that, through a special promotion, the previously premium HBO add-on package would now be provided for free on all dorm TVs in both Rose
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZI PRATT VIA FLICKR
Natalie Dormer, Game of Thrones star, poses on the HBO red carpet.
Hill and Lincoln Center residence halls. Students were informed that their televisions could now tune into the HBO, HBO 2, HBO signature and HBO Family channels. However, unlike subscribing to HBO from a typical residence, HBO packages at Fordham do not come with a free subscription to the network’s online streaming service, HBO GO. And the promotion is only temporary, with
free access to the channels ending at the end of the academic year. In the meantime, could free HBO be what gets students to switch from their laptops to their televisions? In short, maybe. Blame bad timing. As of right now, none of the network’s biggest shows are in season: comedies like “Veep” and “Girls” do not premiere until late February. HBO’s most popular show,
“Game of Thrones” (which has set international records in illegal downloads) does not premiere until April. Even the network’s weekly comedy news show, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” is on hiatus until later this month. So even students who are HBO fans, like Elana Burk, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’17, do not feel the need to watch the network on their dorm TVs. Burk, who became a fan of “Game of Thrones” in high school, has used an HBO Go account to keep up with the show in college but has found it frustrating to do so because of unreliable wi-fi. And while she has not tuned in to HBO on the dorm TVs just yet, she believes she will for the upcoming season six premiere. “I’ll probably start using [the channels] when the shows I watch come back…‘Game of Thrones’ is a show that deserves to be seen on the big screen,” she said. A student who has been watching HBO on her dorm TV is Chelsea Landman, FCLC ’16. Landman is a communications intern at the PBS children’s program “Sesame Street” which is now produced in partnership with HBO. Landman enjoys keeping up with the episodes she has worked on when they air on the net-
work Saturday mornings, saying “it’s fun to watch episodes where I was on set when they filmed.” But for fellow Fordham residents looking for a fun childhood throwback marathon now that the dorm TVs get HBO, Landman warns that things might not look the same as they did 18 years ago: “the season you’re seeing on HBO right now is very different, because of the new set…[for example], The Grouch still has his trash can, but he also has a compost bin, and a recycle bin.” But for fans of HBO’s more adult content, the network itself has not had much to offer outside of the movies that it airs. For Mackenzie Harte, FCLC ’17, that might have been enough – had he known about the promotion in the first place. “Now that you mention it I think I remember hearing something about it,” he said when asked about the new TV feature. “But, yeah, I didn’t know about it.” After musing on this new information, Harte’s final thoughts seem to sum up the majority of residents’ feelings on the promotion quite well: “I hope to [watch HBO shows when they premiere in the Spring]...I think it’s a good bonus. I wish they would offer it again next year.”
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February 11, 2016
Features
14
GSBLC’s First Club Invests in the Future
The Investment Group focuses on stock investing and getting ahead in the world of business.
By REESE RAVNER Asst Features Editor
The first and only club at the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC), the Investment Group, aims to bring multiple perspectives together to analyze the trends of the stock market, learn how to make sound investments and prepare for the future in the world of business. President of the club Anthony Norris, GSBLC ’18, and Senior Vice President Steven Romanello, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’18, noted that a key purpose of the club is to supplement the business education and curriculum at Fordham. The idea for the club originated from Norris “long before [he] went to college.” Norris said, “On my first day of orientation, I looked at what clubs were available and there was not one business club … I’ve been investing since I was 12 years old, and that was sort of an interest for me. So I thought, why not start an investment club? And by the third day of orientation, I had the paperwork submitted to create this club.” Norris pitched his idea to two of his closest friends, Romanello and Christopher Artun, FCLC ’18, and had them on board with the idea by the end of a two-hour dinner. Norris never looked to clubs at other colleges as a model for his, which he feels gave him the opportunity to “let this club become what [he] wanted it to be.” The club is open to all students at Lincoln Center, GSBLC and FCLC alike. According to Romanello, “It benefits our club when we have a multitude of majors and people with a multitude of backgrounds coming in…if you look at some of the best investors, some of the best traders in the world, so many of them did not major in business when they were undergraduate students.” He added that the diversity of majors and backgrounds enriches the conversation, whether it be about investing in stock or analyzing trends. “Different majors,” he said, “teach [individuals] different ways
of thinking so when you combine all of those different ways of thinking into one analysis, the results are pretty fascinating.” Norris noted that that idea was the reason he chose the people he did for the executive board (Eboard). The E-board currently consists of two GSBLC students and two FCLC students. As far as what to expect from a typical meeting of the Investment Group, Romanello said, “You really have to look at our agenda. We try [to] provide our members with a diverse range of activities one meeting is never going to be the same as the last.” The club’s semester agenda will be reviewed at the first meeting and is available via email upon request. Past meetings have included toptier guest speakers from the business world, such as Tony Palma, an executive vice president at CitiGroup, who spoke to the club about what he did to get to where he is today. Another focus of the group is an intra-club competition on the website, Stock-Trak, the aim of which is to find out who can “outperform the stock market…and what their reasonings behind that is,” Norris said. Besides the competition between club members, this semester, the Investment Group plans to participate in a competition with other colleges, such as Pace University and Sacred Heart University, the goal of which will be to prepare a single investment portfolio as a club and observe how it performs against other schools’ plans. Also planned for this semester is a Wall Street tour, a trading platform tour with CitiGroup and other various outings. The club also hopes to host a debate between GSBLC professors. “A lot of our [members] ask questions not only market-related and how to observe different trends in the market, but ‘what do I need to do right now to get an internship?’… ‘What career options are open to me as a member of the business school or, if I don’t major in business, can I still get into that field with a different degree?’” Romanello explained.
“ When you combine...different ways of
thinking into one analysis, the results are pretty fascinating.” –
STEVEN ROMANELLO, Senior Vice President of the Investment Group
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANTHONY NORRIS
Anthony Norris, GSBLC ’18, Steven Romanello, FCLC ’18, and Christopher Artun, FCLC ’18, founded GSBLC’s first club, the Investment Group, within the first two weeks of their freshman year.
“As sophomores, these aren’t questions that we can answer so we want to bring together a couple of professors to hear different sides of those issues.” Perhaps the most difficult, yet most intriguing goal of the Investment Group is to manage a donated sum of money and invest it how they choose. “Over the years every student would be able to participate and actively trade with the money and we’d make group decisions… of course, there would be an advisor to oversee this and make sure that we’re not messing around with [the money], but that’s something that we hope to do,” Norris said. He added, “That [would be] something unique to our club, because there’s not many clubs that do that—none at Lincoln Center or Rose Hill. There is one class at Rose Hill that does it, but that is something that we are definitely exploring and still remains a common goal among us.” Additionally, the E-board met with the developers of an investment app called Alpha Beta, which is designed to provide students or those interested with the tools to learn how to invest successfully, such as market research, data on the behavior of stocks in the last five years, videos, simulations, practices, etc. The Investment Group is “working toward bringing that app to Fordham,” as the company is interested
in beta testing it and collecting feedback. Institutions such as Harvard and MIT are also competing for it to provide it as a supplement for their investing classes. From the outside, the Investment Group appears to have many similarities to FCLC’s Economics Society, but Romanello clarified that the Economics Society focuses more on “the theory of what goes on in the economy” as opposed to the Investment Group’s main focus of investing. The two praised the help they’ve received from Father Vin DeCola, assistant dean of GSBLC, and Professor N.K. Chidambaran of GSBLC’s graduate school. “Father DeCola did help us a lot with [the club]…he made sure that we succeeded. I can say the same about Professor Chidambaran,” Norris said. Romanello added, “We sort of pitch them ideas and they tell us whether or not it is feasible; and if they have any resources they feel would be of help to us, they always lend them.” The largest challenge the Investment Group has faced is obtaining funds from the Student Activities Budget Committee (SABC). Norris and Romanello guessed it is because they are GSBLC’s first club, so they feel they must prove their club as not solely a fun activity, but “an important part of the educational experi-
ence.” Norris said, “When we did sit down with them, we were able to persuade them to give us a decent amount of funding but…it’s really been our biggest challenge.” Norris and Romanello encourage all students at Lincoln Center to join the Investment Group, stating that everyone and anyone will benefit from what they have to offer. Christopher Artun commented, “When the concept for this club was first being considered, the three of us had a lot of decisions to make— what we aspire to become, how we were gonna get there, and what legacy we would like to leave with the Fordham community. Sitting here a year and a half later, I can confidently say that not only have we met our expectations, but we’ve exceeded so many benchmarks that we set. The best part is that we still have a ton of exciting and enriching events planned for the near future, and we invite everyone to join us and be a part of one of the most dynamic organizations on campus.” Though the club has been a tremendous success thus far, Norris admitted, “we’re only sophomores, so we have a lot to learn. We hope that we can grow with our club.” The Investment Group’s first meeting of the semester will be held in room 518 of the Leon Lowenstein building on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 1:15 p.m.
Sports
Sports Editor Matthew McCarthy-mmccarthy80@fordham.edu February 11, 2016 THE OBSERVER
Where Do Daily Fantasy Sports Go From Here? By THOMAS O’CALLAGHAN Staff Writer
Regardless of your personal interest in the sporting world, anyone that watches television has been assaulted by the deluge of advertisements for the two giants dominating daily fantasy sports: DraftKings and FanDuel. According to an analyst for the financial firm Nomura, FanDuel and DraftKings combined to spend $150 million in the third quarter of 2015 alone on television and Internet advertising. This far-fetched phenomenon of “investing three dollars and winning two million dollars” has become firmly seated in the American consciousness, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. But these fantasy sports companies have recently been questioned as to whether or not the rules of these daily contests actually constitute gambling. This debate over the definition of “gambling” has led many states to ban these websites, most recently New York State in November. In addition to state legislature countering the creeping influence of daily fantasy leagues, internal scandals have called the validity of this business model into question. So, where do these fantasy sports enterprises go from here? Fantasy sports have been popular across the world since the inception of the Internet, and the concept of a fan choosing a dream roster of his favorite players has changed the way in which the mass audience consumes sports games. The latest innovation that reinvigorated the fantasy scene was brought about by these two companies that offered “one day games” and the alluring change that a customer could re-pick their teams every day, as opposed to the original system of choosing a team for an entire season. The popularity of the new model has exploded in the years since FanDuel and DraftKings were founded in 2009 and 2012, respectively. But several stumbling blocks have slowed their quest to monopo-
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDA CHU/ BAY AREA NEWS GROUP VIA TNS
The future of daily fantasy sports is uncertain as states continue to ban the popular gambling outlet.
lize advertising during any and every televised ballgame. The most confounding obstacle facing the future of these games is the semantic struggle over the definition of gambling and whether or not DraftKings and FanDuel fall into that category. The debate seems to rest on whether daily sports were considered games of skill or chance. By state law, games of chance are a form of gambling that most states outlaw. However, these companies seek to define their product in terms of skill. In short, DraftKings and FanDuel’s conjecture is that it takes
skill for customers to choose the best players for their fantasy teams, instead of the crapshoot indicated by a complex formula containing infinite variables affecting athletes’ performance. Legislators have been largely unconvinced by this defense, which has led to increased pressure on these companies to change their current business practices. In addition to governmental interest in these affairs, an intercorporate scandal between DraftKings and FanDuel has weakened their public image. In October of last year, it was revealed that a
DraftKings employee had won over $350,000 on FanDuel, opening up allegations of “insider tradingtype” misconduct. According to the Wall Street Journal, DraftKings is under investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice since the scandal was brought to light. After mounting incidents like these, the future of competitive online fantasy games has become unclear. While the operation of FanDuel and DraftKings was suspended in New York, it has been granted permission to continue business throughout the appeal process.
Daily fantasy sports have become a major powerbroker in the world of professional sports, with Major League Baseball (MLB) and many other teams owning interests in these companies. FanDuel and DraftKings are at worst corrupt bandits, and at best an annoying bombardment of advertisements, and their character seems to be demeaned every day. Perhaps with some rebranding and more transparency, these companies will continue to dominate the marketplace they themselves have thrust into the national consciousness.
Fordham Basketball Begins February with Mixed Results By MOHDSHOBAIR HUSSAINI Asst. Sports Editor
The month of January is behind us. That means that midterms are in just a few weeks. That also means that there is just one more month of regular season basketball for Fordham’s men’s varsity team. This past week, Coach Jeff Neubauer and his squad first traveled up north to face off against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and then hosted Saint Joseph’s University. On Jan. 30, the Fordham Rams (overall 11–8, conference 2–6) faced off against the UMass Minutemen (overall 8–11, conference 1–6). The game was nationally televised on the NBC Sports Network, so many Fordham students were looking forward to watching their team win on the road. This matchup marked the 42nd meeting between these two teams, with the Minutemen leading the alltime series 29–12. The first 8 minutes of the game featured both teams exchanging buckets. The Rams then used a 13–3 run to take their largest lead of the game, 27–17, with 7:44 on the clock. UMass would then surge back with a 15–5 run of its own to tie the game at 32. The second half started off rather slowly, with seven ties and no team holding a lead larger than three points. With 19 seconds left in regulation, Fordham held a narrow 63–60 lead following an An-
ANDREA GARCIA /THE OBSERVER
The Fordham Men’s Basketball team is looking to finish the season on a positive note.
twoine Anderson free throw. UMass effectively converted in its last play, with a three-pointer from Donte Clark which tied the game. With nine seconds remaining, Nemanja Zarkovic missed a final three-point-
er, sending the game to overtime. Head Coach Jeff Neubauer’s squad outscored the home team 15–9, grabbing the thriller, with a 78–72 win. On the offensive end, Fordham was led by Joseph Chartouny and David
Pekarek who scored 18 and 11 points, respectively. Coach Neubauer also earned his 200th career victory. On Feb. 6, the Fordham Rams (overall 12–8, conference 3–6) hosted the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks
(overall 18–4, conference 7–2). This basketball game marked the 51st meeting between these two teams, with the Hawks leading the all-time series 33–17. It should be mentioned that Saint Joseph’s had won the earlier contest in the season in Philadelphia. This meet was also part of the Jesuit Basketball Spotlight (JBS), which is a national effort to capitalize on basketball games between Jesuit institutions. As the game started, the home team quickly jumped to a 7–0 lead four minutes into the game. However, Saint Joseph’s would take advantage of an 18–6 run in the next seven minutes to go up 18–13 with 8:48 remaining in the half. Both teams would then go on separate scoring surges, but Fordham headed into the break down 40–30. In the second half, Coach Phil Martelli’s Hawks used a 15–4 run to take a dominating 55–37 lead with 14:29 left. The closest the Rams came to trimming the deficit was 13. Despite the soldout home game, the Coach Neubauer’s squad lost with a final score of 82–60. The Rams were led on the offensive end by Ryan Rhoomes and Christian Sengfelder, who each scored 16 points. Jon Severe added 14 points of his own. Fordham looks to take victories in their remaining eight games of the season, starting with their next game against St. Bonaventure University.
www.fordhamobserver.com
THE OBSERVER February 11, 2016
Sports
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GRAPHIC BY KATIE MAUER/THE OBSERVER
Catching your Breath in the City that Never Sleeps The Best Breathing Exercises for Students
By ELODIE HUSTON Layout Editor
New York City is a wonderful study partner—it always seems so much easier to stay up until the wee hours of morning finishing a term paper when the rest of the city is staying up with you. But while its ceaseless energy makes for a wonderful companion during midterms, that very same energy can drain you mentally and physically. During a time already fraught with stress and anxiety, New York City college students are faced with a challenge that is entirely their own: how do we disconnect and recharge in an environment that constantly demands our attention? Fitting even the smallest workout or sliver of alone time can seem impossible when faced with the demands of school, work and the city.
Because of its lack of prerequisites and equipment, yoga can be the perfect five minute workout on days when you barely have time to grab a sandwich for lunch. Yoga also serves as a healthy coping mechanism for stressed people who are tight on time. By taking what you learn on your mat into the classroom and the street, your anxiety and stress levels can become much more easily managed. If you’re not the type to come into ragdoll pose on the subway, bringing your yoga practice into your everyday schedule may seem crazy. Luckily, there is a far more subtle side to the practice of yoga. Pranayama, also known as yogic breath, is the control of breath through a variety of techniques. When used in tandem with poses, pranayama can enhance or create ease in your practice. Becoming aware of your breath
and how your body moves with it can automatically calm your immune system, ultimately reducing feelings of anxiety. There are several pranayama practices that promote better sleep and reduced stress. Because these breathing exercises are best done while sitting upright or lying down they can fit seamlessly into your schedule, whether it be at your desk or as a part of your bedtime ritual. The Long Exhale: One pranayama practice in particular proves to be invaluable for college students struggling to keep some semblance of a sleep schedule. The Long Exhale exercise is an accessible practice that can be done from the comfort of your bed. Start by taking a few moments to familiarize yourself with your natural breathing pattern. Inhaling and exhaling through your nostrils, allow your
breath to fill your belly rather than your chest, feeling it rise and fall with your inhalations and exhalations. After a few minutes of steady breathing, begin to count how many seconds your inhales and exhales last. Slowly start to elongate your breath, drawing out your exhales a count or two longer than your inhales. As you spend more time aware of your breath pattern, fall into a ratio that is most comfortable for your body. Abdominal Breathing: Are you feeling anxious about a big presentation at your internship or for your midterm exam? The Abdominal Breathing exercise, also known as diaphragmatic breathing, is the perfect outlet for pent up nervousness. Start with one hand placed on your belly and the other on your chest, breathing through your nose. After a few breaths, start to
focus on the rise and fall of your belly and chest as you inhale. As you inhale, try to expand your belly before you expand your chest. As you exhale, collapse your stomach before you let your chest fall. Begin to elongate your inhales and exhales until you’re taking an average of 6-8 breaths per minute. Yoga does not have to mean sweatpants and a rubber mat—it can be as simple as taking a few minutes for yourself over a lunch break. By focusing on how your body expands and contracts with your breath can help you gain a stronger understanding of what you need to feel your best. And at a time when mental and physical health oftentimes come in second or third place to school and the city that we study in, paying attention to what your body is telling you is crucial to leading a well-rounded life.
The Hidden Gem of the Upper West Side By MATTHEW MCCARTHY Sports Editor
For those looking for a fitness center, The Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center is the hidden gem of Upper West Side. The rec center has all the amenities one could ask for in a fitness center. From its pool to its basketball court to its aerobics room, the center has almost everything for only $25 a year. In addition to the equipment and facilities it offers, the rec center also has many fitness programs, some of which are free to the public. As Center Manager Tuwanda Harmon puts it, “It’s the best bang for your buck for students.” For students looking to get in a good workout in between classes, the Gertrude Ederle Center is only a block away and has different classes available throughout the day. These classes include body conditioning, Hatha yoga and cross training. This means that no matter what each individual is interested in, the rec center has a class available. Furthermore, the center can tailor classes to the needs of students. As explained by Harmon, “we can find a time slot for a program if a group wants a specific class. Once we see a large group wanting a particular thing, we start developing programs for them.” Despite its small facility and tight schedule, Harmon assured that as long as enough students are interested in a certain line of fitness,
JESSICA HANLEY /THE OBSERVER
The Gertude Ederle Recreation Center is now offering $25 memberships for students.
the center will accommodate that group’s needs. For those students still unsure about which gym to join, the Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center offers some classes free once a week. These classes range from yoga to Zumba to cardio training. In addition to the classes, the center also offers time for students
to play basketball in an open gym or swim laps in the pool. Another one of the programs that the rec center is developing and will begin to offer soon is “Learn to Kayak.” As Harmon described, “we’re working on a program to teach members how to kayak in our indoor pool.” This program will teach people of all ages
how to operate and navigate a kayak and is similar to the program coordinated on the Hudson River each spring and fall. The only drawback to the fitness center is the lack of free weights. In the past, this has been the concern of many Fordham students regarding the fitness center within the resi-
dence hall. However, the university decided to address this issue and added dumbbells this past spring. In comparison, the rec center has a plethora of machines for both cardio and muscle building. The center also has a room dedicated to cross training which encourages patrons to use alternate forms of exercise to burn fat or build muscle. Though these are suitable options, the Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center has no barbells and only dumbbells up to 10 pounds. One of the biggest complaints from students is not the lack of options, but the lack of operating equipment provided by Fordham. However, this isn’t a problem at the Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center. Because the center just opened in 2013, all of the equipment is new and in working condition, unlike the McMahon Hall Fitness Center. Furthermore, the membership allows students to go to any of the New York City recreation centers, so commuters can find a spot to work out anywhere across New York. If a student is looking to get a diverse workout, they should definitely check out the Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center. If someone is on the fence about the decision, they can try one of the free classes offered at the 60th street location. For $25, a membership to the rec center is definitely worth it, if only for the access to the pool, basketball court and various classes.