The role was created to bring together the work of Fordham’s government relations team and the Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), helping to drive major public initiatives, such as the $50 million EPA grant, and make the University a catalyst for positive impact, locally and globally. Proulx will leverage his expertise in local, state, and federal government relations to secure funding for Fordham’s academic initiatives and amplify the University’s civic engagement at home and abroad.

“Fordham is a unique institution in New York City—it’s just part of our mission to serve the city,”  said Tokumbo Shobowale, Fordham senior vice president, CFO, and treasurer, to whom Proulx will report. “But we could do even more, and part of that is creating better relationships and more coordination with various organizations, public and non-public, across our communities in the city and beyond.”

Shobowale said Proulx intimately understands a university’s dual role in educating students and serving their communities. “He’s done exactly this kind of work for many years in different contexts and he’s very Fordham. He really understands the role that higher education—and government support for higher education—can play for our students.”

Proulx said he’s always known Fordham to be “an exceptional institution.”

“I think amongst all of New York’s colleges and universities, Fordham puts mission at the forefront of its work. A lot of universities share these values but have struggled with how to operationalize them. Fordham is a standout in this area—it’s an institution that’s continually trying to do better. And that’s why I’m so excited to have this opportunity.” 

He said he is particularly excited by the current leadership, namely President Tania Tetlow and Shobowale, who joined Fordham 15 months ago from The New School, where he served for 10 years after spending more than a decade working in city government.

“This leadership team sends the message that they recognize and respect Fordham’s excellence and they want to do more.”

A Personal Commitment to Creating Opportunity

Proulx spent six years at the nation’s largest public university system, the State University of New York (SUNY). There he served as vice chancellor for agency and community engagement, overseeing government relations, policy development, budget and research advocacy, community engagement, and marketing across the system’s 64 campuses. 

As the first in his family to go to college, Proulx is deeply committed to making college more attainable and affordable. New York’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) gave him the financial and personal support he needed to graduate from St. Lawrence University in the Adirondacks. He’s also an alumnus of the CUNY Graduate Center. He said he’s proud of his work at SUNY in helping to expand the income threshold and eligibility requirements for New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). 

“It’s important to me to be able to create those opportunities for others who come from similar backgrounds and similar struggles. … That commitment to serving and helping others lift themselves up has been the common thread throughout my career. I would never want to work someplace that wasn’t committed to doing better for others.”

Proulx has also worked on multiple initiatives to address climate change, from creating a statewide plan for agriculture innovations such as vertical farming to the $15 million EV charging network he helped secure for SUNY. Prior to his service at SUNY, he helped lead communications and organizing in support of New York’s 2014 ban on fracking.

He said he admires the exceptional work already happening at Fordham, and plans to build on it—first and foremost with a commitment to being accessible to the campus community. 

“I want people to know that they can reach out to me if they have an idea,” he said, “So we can talk through how to bring in new opportunities and resources for Fordham.” 

Father Massaro said he has known of “the prestigious McGinley Chair since I was in my 20s,” in part because of the semiannual public lectures the chair historically delivers.  

This tradition, said Massaro, “is one of the ways that Fordham reaches out and plays its role as a center of theology in the broadest, pluralistic circles of New York City life.”

Tracing the Legacy of the McGinley Chair

The McGinley Chair takes its name from Fordham’s 26th president, the Rev. Laurence J. McGinley, S.J., who deepened Fordham’s ties to New York City life and culture by establishing its Lincoln Center campus and serving as a founding director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Upon McGinley’s retirement in the 1980s, colleagues in New York’s civic and arts communities contributed generously to endow the chair.

As the third person to serve as the McGinley Chair, Father Massaro said he is “very conscious of walking in the footsteps of the first two occupants.” Inaugural chair Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., was the first and still only American theologian to be named a cardinal of the Catholic Church. The second chair, former Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Fordham, Patrick Ryan, S.J., was widely known for his expertise on Islamic political thought and fostered mutual understanding between followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He served as the McGinley Chair from 2009 until his retirement in 2022 and now lives at Murray-Weigel Hall, the Jesuit retirement home outside Fordham’s Bronx campus.

Father Massaro, whose area of theological scholarship is social ethics, has written extensively on Catholic social teaching and its recommendations for public policies. He has published 150 articles to date and authored 11 books, including United States Welfare Policy: A Catholic Response (Georgetown University Press, 2007) and Pope Francis as Moral Leader (Paulist Press, 2023).  

“A moral theologian like myself is well positioned to hold this chair and to leverage its publicity to address a broader audience,” he said, “one that includes not just people of faith, but people who don’t think often in terms of religious belief or practice.”

A Fresh Take on American Exceptionalism

As part of his installation ceremony, Father Massaro will deliver his first McGinley Chair lecture on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 in the Keating Hall first floor auditorium at Rose Hill. The topic will be the problematic and ambiguous concept of “American exceptionalism” as seen through a Catholic lens. 

“Catholics have hardly ever spoken about this notion of America as inherently unique and morally superior compared to other nations,” said Father Massaro, “leaving a void of perceptive assessments regarding America’s potential contribution to the global pursuit of political values. So I’ll be offering a fresh perspective. This research project has been percolating in my mind for many years now.”

The Mandarins (1954) by Simone de Beauvoir 

The Middlemarch or War and Peace of the mid-20th century—an incredible novel about Paris intellectuals trying to remake the world along better lines after the Second World War, based on the lives of the existentialist circle. It features a love affair based on Beauvoir’s real-life relationship with the American writer Nelson Algren.—Keri Walsh

Devil’s Teeth (2006), The Wave (2011), and The Underworld (2023) by Susan Casey

Susan Casey, a popular science writer specializing in the ocean, is a fantastic writer who I use for writing exercises. With her vivid descriptions of undersea life and skillful integration of sources, she is a great example of the mid-range of expository prose that’s not academic but notches above Wikipedia and Reddit. Her three best books are Devil’s Teeth (about great white sharks), The Wave (about waves and surfing), and The Underworld (about deep-sea exploration).—Martin Northrop

Salvage: Readings from the Wreck (2024) by Dionne Brand

This book is an important read for anyone, especially for literary scholars, and especially as we encourage people from all different backgrounds to join the English department. Brand rereads classic English novels, pointing out that “learning to read English literature involved learning not to notice who, or what, was missing.”—M. Gaby Hurtarte Leon

The Demon of Unrest (2024) by Erik Larson

Earlier this fall, I read Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, which looks at the four months in 1860-61 between Abraham Lincoln’s election and his inauguration (which back then, was held in March). It’s about the growing secessionist crisis leading to the firing on Fort Sumter, and the new president’s response to it.

Larson manages to tell some of the critical moments of the Fort Sumter siege almost like a “tick tock” (to use an old journalist’s phrase). It’s hour by hour at some points, as telegrams fly and emergency meetings are hurriedly convened (and recorded). You really feel like you’re at a cabinet meeting in the White House, or sitting nervously behind an artillery battery in Charleston harbor. And the narrative is told through the eyes of about seven individuals from the north and south, including Lincoln. And it’s all seamlessly woven together. 

I mentioned it to my students as a wonderful example of creative nonfiction, in the sense that it’s well-researched history, but told in a creative, artful way.—John Hanc

An Authentic Life (2024) by Jennifer Chang

An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang is filled with poems that I needed these last few months, not only because their topics—ranging from patriarchy to war to school shootings to religious doubt to marriage—seemed crucial, but because of the sublime way Chang mixes syntactical care with the precise wielding of wild imagery.—Meghan Dahn

The Copenhagen Trilogy (2022) by Tove Ditlevsen

This Danish novel is quite close to a memoir: like the protagonist, Ditlevsen grew up poor in Denmark during the early 20th century, and despite many obstacles, found a way to become a writer. It’s a beautiful, melancholy short trilogy (all in one volume), with poverty, political engagement, and the world wars on the margins of a very special coming-of-age story. I read it last winter and it has stuck with me all year. The scenes of her bicycling around Copenhagen are glorious. A beautiful book. —Anne Fernald

Counternarratives (2016) by John Keene 

A fascinating, richly layered collection of stories and novellas about the history of colonialism in the Americas. Wildly experimental and electric historical fiction. For anyone interested in immersing themselves in the intricate entanglements of the multi-century encounters of colonial crisis.—Shonni Enelow

My Struggle, Books 1-6 (2013-2019) by Karl Ove Knausgaard 

I’m finally reading this six-volume series from the 2010s––one of the defining works of that decade, along with Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. Like those, Knausgaard’s books are consuming, addictive, and kind of manic––unlike them, they are fundamentally non-dramatic, all about the banal details of the everyday that he manages to make totally compelling.—S.E. 

An Earthquake is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (2024) by Anna Moschovakis 

Full disclosure: I haven’t read this yet, but I’m so excited to. I love Moschovakis’s writing: it’s sparse, elegant, and strange. And––another full disclosure––my book, A Discourse on Method, apparently makes a cameo in it!—S.E.

Book recommendations were edited for clarity.

He worked for over 30 years in network engineering, spending his early career at AT&T and MetLife before joining Fordham seven years ago.

Longtime colleague Cesar Nau, Fordham’s director of infrastructure services, remembers him as a calming presence in stressful moments. Network engineers at Fordham need to be able to fix all manner of outages, he said, including ones that pose safety threats, such as when the fire alarm system stops communicating with the fire department. Even in scenarios that required an immediate resolution, he remained cool-headed.

“Tony just knew how to bring everybody back down to earth,” said Nau. “While everybody is running around like headless chickens, he was always that even-keeled individual that took down his notes, got his thoughts together, and executed. He helped me tons in those types of scenarios in the sense that I would see him being so calm and he calmed me down all the time. And he just had this respectfulness about him and politeness that I personally admired. You don’t see that often anymore, unfortunately.”

Anand Padmanabhan, vice president and chief information officer at Fordham, said, “Tony was a dedicated and valued employee and great team member. His positive attitude inspired and elevated everyone around him. He will be sorely missed.”

He was also a valued player on the Fordham Bombers, the University’s interdepartmental softball team. Its former captain, Cloud Systems Analyst Ariel Cofresi, called him “a great team player, willing to play any position. Tony was very youthful at heart and didn’t let his age affect him on the field.”

Chief Troubleshooter at Home

His wife, Barbara, grew up in the same Morris Park area of the Bronx as her husband. After they were married in 1988, they moved to Westchester and raised their two girls, Dana and Aimee. Caring, thoughtful, kind, patient, and loving are the words the family used to describe Tony, who Barbara said was actively involved in all phases of their children’s lives. Their daughters played many sports, and he helped to coach their soccer, basketball, softball, and swim teams.

He also had a creative side and enjoyed working with his hands. Calligraphy was a favorite pastime of his, as was building models and computers. He passed along his love of art to his daughters, taught them how to draw, and encouraged his eldest, Dana, to pursue a career in design. He was also passionate about history, space, military aircraft, and science. He bonded with his youngest, Aimee, over her biology courses and passion for public health. A true New Yorker, he also loved the New York Yankees, and food. “He absolutely loved sharing a big dinner with family and enjoyed home-cooked meals,” said Barbara.

She also fondly recalled how he applied his problem-solving skills at home.

“He loved troubleshooting. It was one of his favorite words. If he had to fix a light bulb, he would say let me troubleshoot that!” she laughed. 

In addition to his wife, daughters, and his daughters’ partners, Tony is survived by his sister, Anna. His family welcomes everyone whose lives he touched to join them in honoring his memory. A celebration of his life will be held on Sunday, Dec. 15  from 12 to 4 p.m. at the Edwards-Dowdle Funeral Home in Dobbs Ferry, New York. The funeral will take place on Monday, Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. at the Sharon Gardens Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the American Diabetes Association or to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

When the Association of International Educators opened nominations for its lifetime achievement award this summer, Salvatore “Sal” Longarino quickly became the clear front-runner. 

The number of letters that poured in for Fordham’s director of international services was so impressive, the New York and New Jersey chapter of the organization closed submissions once they received the first 15—triple the typical number.  “A tremendous mentor,” “a trusted resource and advisor,” and “an authentic role model to us all” were among the praises heaped upon Longarino by his past and present colleagues. 

For over 20 years, Longarino has made it possible for international students to study at Fordham by overseeing the complex documentation required to host them in the U.S. He has also relayed his expertise to younger colleagues, a number of whom have gone on to work at other institutions, including NYU, Seton Hall, Yeshiva University, Columbia University, Tufts, and Saint Peter’s.  

A Big Turnout of Protégés and Peers 

At the October awards ceremony in Atlantic City, Longarino’s network of supporters from Fordham and other universities showed up in matching T-shirts. Printed on each was a picture of Longarino and the slogan: “The Big Daddy of Int’l Education,” a testament to the number of people he has nurtured over his 40-year career.

“As a parent, when you look at your children, you just bask in their success,” Longarino said. “And that’s my life now, just looking at the people that [I have mentored], and being able to pass on the baton to them.”

Supporting Fordham’s 3,000 International Students

Longarino, who said he has always been drawn to international affairs, entered the field of international education as an assistant foreign student advisor at NYU in the late 1970s. When he joined Fordham in 2000, he was a team of one assisting 300 international students. Today he leads a staff of seven associate and assistant directors and international student advisors who support 3,000 international undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers and faculty. 

Giving students an opportunity to receive “the greatest education” in the “greatest city” in the “greatest nation” benefits the student, Fordham, and the world, says Longarino. 

“When my students graduate, I say: Go out and make a better planet,” he said.

Navigating temporary legal status for students during their college years and their first job a year or more after graduation is no small feat. All of the things that are easy for U.S. students to do—flying home for the holidays or for a family emergency, applying for jobs, attending a conference in another country—require precise, time-consuming documentation for international students. And Longarino’s office makes them possible at a moment’s notice and in the face of ever-changing U.S. policies. 

“We are given the responsibility to give legal status to our students,” said Longarino of the work that his office performs. “And they have to maintain that status. They have to study a certain way, they can work only a certain way, travel only a certain way, stay here for a certain length of time. So when you have 3,000 [international students]on top of that, every case is different. It’s a challenge, but it’s rewarding to make it happen.”

In an email last week to students and colleagues, May Adrales, director of the Fordham Theatre program, called Jenness’ death an “enormous loss for Fordham, for the theatre community, and for the world at large.”

“Many playwrights and directors working today can trace their beginnings in American theatre back to Morgan,” said Adrales of Jenness, who used they/them and she/her pronouns. “Their support didn’t end with encouragement; Morgan championed the work they believed in, often connecting creators with exactly the right collaborators to bring bold theatrical visions to life.” 

A Powerful Mentor to Young Playwrights

Fordham graduate Morgan Gould, FCLC ‘08, credits Jenness—who Gould described as her “professor/mentor/kooky aunt/mom/theater doula”—with where she is today: a published playwright, director, and writer for television shows such as A League of Their Own. 

“She treated every student as if it was only a matter of time that you were going to be a world-famous auteur. She would drag me to every kind of theater opening and introduced me to everyone as a young director. Having someone so sure that it will happen is something you never forget, and for so many of us, she was the first person to do that.” Today, Gould said, “I make my living only in the arts. Morgan was a huge part of making that possible.”

Another former mentee of Jenness’, Peter Gil-Sheridan FCLC ’98, said that countless Fordham friends reached out to talk about Jenness’ impact on their lives.

“Morgan left the world a better place than they found it,” said Gil-Sheridan, a former Fordham adjunct professor who is now assistant professor of playwriting at Vassar College. “Their passing is seismic in the theatre community. But so is their impact. I am so proud to be one of the students that was so deeply held and felt by my dear teacher. We can all honor them by continuing to demand more of our selves in our work, to see the theatre as a space for activism, cultural critique, and radical love.”

Uplifting Playwrights 

Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, said that Jenness helped redefine the role of a dramaturg, who is traditionally called upon to aid actors, directors, and playwrights in their understanding and presentation of a play. 

“Morgan was one of the first generation of people who were defining what a new play dramaturg was: the midwife and support system of a playwright,” he told The New York Times, whose obituary noted Jenness’ impact on the careers of successful playwrights, including MacArthur “genius” grant winner Taylor Mac and David Adjmi, who wrote the 2024 Tony Award-winning play Stereophonic.  

“Countless” artists “across all generations” felt “seen and loved” by Jenness, said Fordham’s former head of playwriting, Daniel Alexander Jones.

“In everyday conversation, she would lift the names and works of artists and advocate for them constantly. Carl Hancock Rux, Erik Ehn, Luis Alfaro, Taylor Mac, Bridget Carpenter, Marcus Gardley, Keith Josef Adkins, David Adjmi, and Alice Tuan are the first names that come to mind when I turn on the spigot of those early memories of time with Morgan. … When she taught, she carried us into the lesson plans, alongside those departed luminaries whose beacons she also tended.”

Jenness is survived by a brother, four nephews, and two nieces, one of whom, Martinique Gann, is quoted in The New York Times about Jenness’ dedication to students and the theater. 

“There was no stopping my aunt for anything,” Ms. Gann recalled. “She picked me up in a cab from the airport. And right away, with my two suitcases, we drove straight to Fordham University to see a play one of her students had written.”

In Trevithick’s undergraduate courses, including Taboo: the Anthropology of the Forbidden and Human Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective, he often revealed how similar humans are in their attractions and aversions. 

“We exchanged ideas on which courses might appeal to students and what course names would be most appropriate,” said Anthropology Professor Allan S. Gilbert, Ph.D., the department chair at the time of Trevitheck’s hiring in 2007. Since many of Fordham’s anthropology courses were designed in the 1960s and 1970s, they needed to bring the content and terminology up to date in a way that would also attract students. “Alan was very good at that,” said Gilbert. “He was also an excellent teacher and influenced numerous students to major in anthropology over the years.”

Recent graduate Ellen Sweeney, FCRH ‘23, recalled the compelling discussions she had in two of Trevithick’s classes, even through Zoom during the 2020–2021 academic year. 

“I always walked out of his classrooms—virtual and in person—with a smile on my face, musing about all that we had discussed,” she said. “I practically re-taught his lectures to my friends because they were so interesting.”

It may have helped that he often taught his remote classes during the pandemic with his blue parrotlet Giuseppe Celestiano DiForpini—Pino for short—on his shoulder. “Seeing his love for the bird and care for teaching us helped me stay engaged during the semester, and I think it helped me stay on track through that whole difficult year,” said Sweeney. 

Born on November 11, 1952, in Washington, D.C., Trevithick was raised by parents who inspired his lifelong intellectual curiosity and wanderlust. His father, John Trevithick, worked for the U.S. mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, where Trevithick spent several of his childhood years. His mother taught high school and college level English.

Trevithick lived abroad again in his 30s, after earning a bachelor’s in history of religion from George Washington University, a master’s in South Asian studies from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. His doctoral research brought him to India for two years as a Fulbright Scholar. It culminated in his research monograph about one of the world’s largest pilgrimage sites, Bodh Gaya. 

In the 1990s, Trevithick met his wife, Fordham Mathematics Professor Melkana Brakalova-Trevithick, Ph.D., while the two were teaching at the American University in Bulgaria. 

“He just fell in love with the country, and appreciated its complex, ancient history and culture. The Bulgarians are very appreciative of intellectual strengths … and of rich creative inner lives.” Trevithick could relate: he was a musician, an artist, and a writer—he later penned a weekly column for a local Connecticut paper he edited, The Voice, and before he died was hard at work on a comic sci-fi novel, Raise the City, which draws from his Cornish heritage that stretches back to the English inventor of the steam locomotive, Richard Trevithick.

“He was always bubbling with creativity and abilities—whether it was playing jazz on the keyboard, creating paper mâché inspired by mathematical fractals, or spending hours writing his book,” his wife said.

At Fordham, he was instrumental in the unionization efforts for adjunct and contingent faculty. He continued his activism through the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, where he served on their Social Justice Committee.

“His kindness, optimism, and intellect were unmatched,” said Brakalova-Trevithick. “Many people say he was one in a million. I am saying one in infinity.” 

Trevithick cherished time with his sons, Joe and Alex, sharing in their pursuits, whether fishing in Connecticut lakes or traveling to the Black Sea. In addition to his wife and sons, Trevithick is survived by his brother, John; daughter-in-law, Kelly; granddaughter, Molly; and many other family members and friends.

A celebration of life service will be held on Nov. 24, at 2 p.m. at the Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation in White Plains, New York, with an option to attend via Zoom. For details, please email [email protected]. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of your choice or to support the publication of Raise the City.

The Lincoln Center Learning & Innovative Technology Environment, located on the fourth floor of Lowenstein in room 416, was operating at full tilt as of last Thursday. A miniature, plastic model of the Eiffel Tower was coming to life in the belly of a 3D printer. Students with virtual reality goggles practiced hurling imaginary objects across a giant flat-screen. And inside the brand-new video/podcasting studio, a pair of LITE’s work-study students demonstrated how to record a video while jotting notes on a screen, weatherman-style.

“People say when they walk into the space, they feel more creative—that LITE lets them think outside the box and be able to apply these technologies in their classes,” said Nicole Zeidan, Ed.D., assistant director of emerging educational technologies and learning space design. She helps connect LITE’s resources to students and faculty, such as Assistant Professor of Art History Nushelle de Silva, Ph.D.

Virtual Reality for Museum Studies

Earlier this fall, de Silva wanted her Museum Architecture students to see how a museum experience changes when you “visit” it virtually. Using VR headsets at Rose HIll’s LITE, students were able to view the “Mona Lisa” up close without the hordes of tourists in the Louvre. 

With this technology now available at Lincoln Center, said de Silva, “ I could turn this into homework. And then we would have the whole of the class time to talk about that experience.”

Printing Sturdy Replicas of Fragile Artifacts 

The tools at the LITE Center in Lowenstein and its counterpart at Rose Hill are designed to make classes experiential and creative work more accessible. Students can fashion theater costumes with LITE’s sewing machines or repair objects with its soldering equipment. A too-fragile-to-touch artifact can be 3D scanned, then 3D printed to create a durable facsimile, like the medieval seals the LITE Center recreated for Center for Medieval Studies Director Nicholas Paul. “The originals … are made out of wax and, obviously, extremely old, so having copies that we can pass around and look at closely is really useful in classes,” he said.

Fleur Eshghi, Ed.D., associate vice president of educational technology research computing, said she thinks many academic departments will make good use of the center. 

“We have been looking for space for Lincoln Center to build the same facilities [as Rose Hill],” she said. “And we have finally succeeded … I’m extremely excited.” 

Letting the Light in

Nicola Terzulli, learning space design lead for the Office of Technology, made the most of Lincoln Center’s light-filled space when designing the different stations.

“Lowenstein has those iconic windows for each floor,” said Terzulli, so he found a manufacturer who could soundproof a podcasting room but keep the glass walls. When the studio is not in use, you can see through it. But should you need privacy—or want to use the room to record a media-rich lesson for Panopto, Fordham’s platform for video classes—you just draw the room’s thick black curtains to enclose it.

Terzulli even used all-glass cabinets to make the tools at Lincoln Center’s LITE easy to see. 

“We wanted as much glass as possible … so people when they walk in, they see [these tools]and they’re like, ‘Hey, what’s that? Can I do that? Can I use that?’”

For details on the features and hours of the Lincoln Center and the Rose Hill LITE Centers, visit their site.

Hosted by the Archdiocese of New York’s Office of Black Ministry, led by Br. Tyrone A. Davis, C.F.C., the awards dinner recognized President Tania Tetlow and two Fordham scholars for their leadership and commitment to their communities.

The annual event supports the Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Fund, named for the once-enslaved Haitian-American entrepreneur who devoted his life to charitable work. Hundreds of attendees gathered in the landmarked Manhattan restaurant Guastavino’s to honor the scholarship recipients and this year’s Pierre Toussaint Medallion awardees, Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum and President Tetlow. 

Tetlow spoke about the inspirational life of Toussaint, who was emancipated in 1800s New York. 

“As we think about leadership and how to lead with love, we remember the example of a man who escaped such profound pain and injustice and oppression. It would’ve been very human of him to lean into hatred and resentment,” she said. “And instead … he came to this city and was so incredibly generous …  if we can, any of us, have a fraction of what he achieved every day, the world will be a better place.”

‘Service Is Love’

Two of the three Pierre Toussaint Scholars featured at the event were Fordham students: Angel Madera Santana, a Fordham junior studying English and pre-law (and the executive vice president of communications and marketing for Rose Hill’s United Student Government), and Fordham senior Joseph Giraldi, who plans to apply his engineering physics degree toward designing medical devices for patients in need.

Emcee Rev. Kareem R. Smith, a pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in the Bronx and the senior chaplain for the scholars program, asked the students about its impact on their education. 

For Giraldi, it “helped us become leaders in the sense that we view everyone with worth and we understand that we have a duty to serve,” he said.

Madera Santana said the program inspired him to serve others: “Service is love, and if we all share just a little bit of what we have, of our gifts and our talents, we would see the greater impact that love has on our community.” 

Established in 1983, the Pierre Toussaint fund provides mentorship as well as spiritual and financial support to students of diverse backgrounds from public, private, and parochial schools throughout the Archdiocese of New York. Of the 88 current Pierre Toussaint Scholars across 45 universities, five of them attend Fordham, including sophomores Erika Grullon and Carol Riaz, first-year student Sofia Morales, and Madera Santana and Giraldi. 

Pierre Toussaint is considered by many to be the father of Catholic Charities in New York. A hairdresser to well-heeled clients like Eliza Hamilton, he donated and raised money to open the first Catholic orphanage in New York and the original St. Patrick’s Cathedral, began the city’s first school for Black children, and cared for the sick. Pope John Paul II proclaimed him “venerable” in 1997, moving him further along the path to sainthood. 

A University Worthy of Toussaint Scholars

Archbishop of New York Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan awarded Tetlow the Pierre Toussaint Medallion, recognizing her commitment to academic excellence, social justice, and service to young leaders.

“I am honored to accept this award on behalf of Fordham University,” she said, “which has for 183 years brought together brilliant faculty, like Bryan Massingale, and an incredible staff and administration, to create a university worthy of the student scholars that you got to hear speak tonight.”

In her remarks, Tetlow celebrated Fordham’s strides in increasing diversity against steep odds. “In this year when the Supreme Court banned us from considering race in admissions, our students of color went up to 50%,” she said to applause.

Cardinal Dolan then awarded the second Medallion to Kirk Whalum, who punctuated his thanks with a performance of the Whitney Houston song he famously soloed on, “I Will Always Love You.”  

As the evening came to an end, Cardinal Dolan told attendees that more and more students come up to him now and say they are former Toussaint scholars. “And that brings such satisfaction and joy and gratitude to my heart … We couldn’t do it without folks like you.”

Establishing a multifaith ministry at a Jesuit university is an important move, said Father Judge. It reflects the changing makeup of the University community.

“I think last spring’s protests on campus showed us the need for dialogue and the need to know one another better, and that’s not simply in a religious sense,” he said. “That’s also in a cultural sense and in looking at different worldviews and different issues that are important to us.” 

Father Judge comes to Fordham with years of on-campus experience: He first arrived at the Rose Hill campus in the mid-1980s as a Jesuit scholastic to study English and philosophy, and has since worked in leadership roles at a number of Jesuit secondary schools including Fordham Prep. We spoke to him about the work of Campus Ministry and why you don’t need to be religious to seek out the department’s services.

What does the director of Campus Ministry do?

The Office of Campus Ministry at Fordham exists to serve the religious and spiritual needs of our students and our faculty and staff. We have about 12 people on staff, and they range from the music director in the University Church; to the directors of religious life for Catholics, Jews, and Muslims; to people who do spiritual direction; to people who run service programs. And then we have a bunch of student interns who help them do all that. Our goal is to make a lot of things available to people so that they continue their religious observance while they’re away from home, but also we give them outlets for developing and deepening their spirituality and finding opportunities to learn through service work.

You have said you believe that Jesuit spirituality can animate everything we do at Fordham. Could you explain what you mean?

A keystone of Ignatian spirituality is…that God is to be found in all things. So I think that’s why Jesuits historically have been missionaries and historically why Ignatius was drawn to the big cities where there’s lots going on and lots of people coming together. There are opportunities for us to find God in new arrangements and new places and new ways. I think that’s at the heart of what we do as a university.

For a student at Fordham who is not religious, what does Campus Ministry offer?

For anybody, we offer a willing ear. There are always pastoral crises, whether or not you think you need a pastoral response to them. People have family members who’ll get ill…They have relationships that go sour, they have goals they’re trying to figure out. So we try always to be a willing ear, whether that’s from a religious perspective or just a listening perspective.

What programming are you most excited about this year?

I think what I’m really excited about is looking at how Jewish life and Muslim life start functioning on campus. It’s been fun finding non-Christian spaces for them to worship in and learning about those things ourselves. We just built our first sukkah on the Rose Hill campus for [the Jewish]Feast of Sukkot, so that’s been a lot of fun. The department itself is engaged in a strategic planning process to look at how this multifaith ministry changes us and how it changes … the programs we offer. I’m very grateful that Fordham has the resources and the will to make this kind of investment in our students. 

Campus Ministry Events and Service Opportunities:

For upcoming Campus Ministry events at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, and to volunteer with community partners, visit the department website here. You can also follow Campus Ministry on Instagram and on LinkedIn for events and news.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Last month Fordham celebrated Yan’s appointment to the Robert Bendheim Chair in Economics and Financial Policy, which was established in 1996 with a gift from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation. He found time to talk about his work before leaving for a trip to China and Taiwan to meet with Gabelli School graduates and potential donors interested in supporting the school’s research.

Your current area of research is ESG—the environmental, social, and governance issues that corporations consider when making business decisions. Why are you drawn to this field and how does the Gabelli School emphasize this in its course offerings? 

That’s part of the strategic research area of the Gabelli School. And also, of course, it’s something I’m passionate about. I spend a lot of time doing this research, trying to see what’s going on, what is wrong, and how we should be trying to educate the students, the market, and the investors. 

Financial Markets and Responsibility is a core course for our Master’s in Finance program and one of the classes I teach. It serves as the starting point for our students to approach [ESG] in more holistic ways and in more scientific ways. And then after this core course, we have electives which are taught by adjuncts working in the field because the ESG landscape has been changing all the time. So those professionals…help our students to really get a hold of the most contemporary issues and challenges. 

The Gabelli School [also]has a student-managed investment fund course that includes an ESG fund. This gives students first-hand experience in managing the portfolio in a sustainable way.

You delivered a lecture on ESG at your installation ceremony. What were the key takeaways?

The takeaway is that ESG is always part of strategic management. It used to be more opportunistic to game the system a little bit and to focus on one [pillar]while sacrificing another one. The recent development seems like the firms, they don’t do this trade-off anymore. My conjecture is, the financial market has become more sophisticated so they can recognize such opportunistic behavior [and they don’t reward it].

There seems to be a backlash against ESG right now. In 2022 Ron DeSantis associated the term with “woke capital.” At the start of this year, The Wall Street Journal ran a story with the headline, “The Latest Dirty Word in Corporate America: ESG.” What’s happening here?

I think it’s just unfortunate, right? It’s a lot of political pressure…but many firms—Unilever, Microsoft—are still [practicing ESG]. They have chief sustainability officers, CSOs. So it tells you they still want to do it. And many people talk about climate risk and how to help the climate. So that’s still there. ESG as a term could be in trouble. But as a practice, I still think many firms are still practicing it, although they may use a different phrase. 

You teach at a Jesuit institution and you received your Ph.D. from one. What is it about this tradition that speaks to you?

Cura personalis [care for the whole person], that’s the key part. Of course there are different ways to talk about a whole human being, but I think one way [is]: just do the right thing. In the current world, you have so much information, different extremes, social media. Sometimes you get lost. I think we’re just trying to [teach]students—think about what’s the right thing to do…follow your value system.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.