An additional 8% are international students. This is the third-largest class ever admitted to Fordham, with more than 2,500 students enrolled as of Monday, Aug. 26.

“With the Class of 2028, Fordham did as it always has done: admitted a group of students whose academic drive and diversity of experience make for an enriching learning environment—one in which all students feel a sense of belonging and support,” said Patricia Peek, Ph.D., associate vice president and dean of undergraduate admission at Fordham.

“It’s wonderful to be able to welcome these students we’ve worked with for such a long time through the admissions process,” she said. “We’re excited to bring them into the Fordham community and to see what they’ll contribute and achieve here.”

A Tradition of Serving First-Generation Students

First-generation students are 27% of the entering class (up from 24% last year), the most in Fordham’s history—a number that resonates with Fordham’s legacy of welcoming students who were first in their families to attend college.

“I’m proud to see that Fordham continues to carry on the legacy of its founder, Archbishop John Hughes, who wanted nothing more than to provide opportunity to struggling Irish immigrants who were unwelcome in the 19th-century school system in New York City, helping them gain a foothold in America,” said Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham University.

Last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action has created uncertainty in university admissions across the nation, noted John W. Buckley, Fordham’s vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

“This ruling has been unsettling for higher education generally, but Fordham has always pursued strategies that foster diversity at the University,” he said. “A key part of our strategy is recruiting from a wide range of high schools, public and private, to ensure that every entering class comprises the widest possible variety of exceptional students.”

Black and Hispanic students account for nearly 7% and 26% of the incoming class, respectively, he said. The number of students from each group has increased substantially compared with last year’s entering class. The number of Black students is 26% higher, and the number of Hispanic students is 28% higher.

A Diverse Class of Exceptional Students

Other figures attest to the class’s academic strength and diversity:

The class has an average SAT/ACT score of 1404. The average high school GPA was 3.64 on a 4.0 scale.

Students came from 55 countries, 46 states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories. Beyond the tristate area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the three states that sent the most students were California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

Nearly 600 students represent New York City’s five boroughs, including a 32% year-over-year increase in students from the Bronx and an 11% increase in students from Manhattan, boroughs where Fordham’s Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses are located.

Fordham’s international student population also continues to grow year over year. The increase of students coming from Canada and India is notable, Peek said—each country sent twice as many students to Fordham compared to last year.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Class of 2028!” Buckley said. “We look forward to seeing the impact you make here at Fordham and out in the world.”

High school students and their families seeking to learn more about Fordham are encouraged to connect with the University’s Office of Undergraduate Admission. The University offers numerous opportunities to visit campus or attend virtual information sessions to experience Fordham firsthand.

Note: Data are current as of Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. The final entering class is typically set by late September.

Then, while visiting the Rose Hill campus, he walked past the statue of Archbishop John Hughes—founder of Fordham, tireless advocate for Irish immigrants, and combative public personality who unabashedly pushed back against anti-Catholic prejudice of the mid-19th century, shocking some of his fellow clerics and earning nationwide fame.

Loughery had found his subject. “I do think he is a major player in 19th-century American history and had not been given his due,” he said. “I just knew this was a great story.”

Loughery tells that story in Dagger John: Archbishop John Hughes and the Making of Irish America (Cornell University Press, 2018). It covers the full scope of Hughes’ life, from obscure Irish immigrant to first archbishop of New York to confidant of U.S. presidents and player on the world stage. As Loughery describes, Hughes was warm-hearted and devout but also fierce and resourceful in service of his destitute, despised Irish immigrant flock. He raised funds prodigiously, founded schools and churches and orphanages, and met threats of anti-Catholic violence with fiery rhetoric about fighting back, with force if necessary. And he used his rhetorical gifts to publicly refute Catholics’ detractors at every turn.

Hughes fervently believed in his own brand of leadership and was ready and willing to be at the center of the storm, said Loughery, an English teacher at the Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan and award-winning author of four other books, including John Sloan: Painter and Rebel (Henry Holt, 1995), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Tell me more about the problems he was up against.
When he came from Philadelphia to New York as coadjutor bishop in 1838, he was horrified—I don’t think he had a clue how bad things were going to be, that the churches were all in danger of foreclosure. And then the church burnings, the convent burnings—between the 1830s and the 1850s, there’s this enormous number of books about the pope’s supposed plans for America, and how the undermining of American democracy is underway with all these Catholics coming in. It probably was not a view most American Protestants supported, but the anxieties were real enough. And the poverty of the Irish coming into New York was a significant problem. The number of people pouring off those boats during the years of the Irish potato famine was colossal. The slums exponentially grow and people start to think, our city is being overrun. There’s the rise of a fundamentalist Protestant movement that wants to say, “We are under attack.”

How did Hughes respond?
His job, he felt, was to make sure these new people coming in do find jobs, they do go to church, they do become reputable citizens. He believed that without the church, the Irish Catholic immigrant was going to be lost, that without some sort of bedrock faith, we as Americans were headed in a very dangerous direction. I think he consecrated a hundred churches in his time. He tried to found churches right and left, and he said even more important than putting in the church building, the priest there should be working to get a parochial school going. He was absolutely devoted to the idea that education was the way out of poverty.

So he’s constantly trying to fundraise and get more priests to come in and get more teachers and get more nuns to come work here, and he’s trying to get a university like Fordham going. It’s amazing he lived to his 60s, that he wasn’t completely worn out by this superhuman effort.

There’s one record of him talking in downtown Manhattan and raising $1,500 dollars that night, a colossal amount of money, for a church-basement grammar school. He was a very popular lecturer; people knew he was the fighting bishop. He was the face of Catholicism in America. He was somebody who had gone to Europe and met the kings and the popes. So he cultivated a colorful, dynamic, charismatic personality, and he had a great speaking voice.

He also felt the need for a kind of public relations campaign where we show what good citizens we can be, and so he’s very involved with courting politicians and being courted by them, trying to get himself seen as helpful to people in power.

How did he break the mold?
I think a lot of bishops were astonished that John Hughes came in and said every insult, every question, every attack [against Catholics]will be met head-on, we will not look the other way. And some of them felt, “You’re making things worse. If we didn’t have to answer every criticism, we didn’t have to constantly be on the barricades, we might be getting along with Protestants better.” And then he gave this speech in 1850, “The Decline of Protestantism and its Causes,” and had many bishops saying, “What in the world do you need to take these people on like that for?”

He was not a pacifist, unlike many other bishops who did turn the other cheek when the church or convent was burned in their area or rioters threatened them. He felt Americans only respect you if you fight back, so he was definitely a more aggressive person.

Was he more than just the “fighting bishop”?
There were gentler sides to him. There are so many letters in the archives from priests and parishioners thanking him for his help and concern, and that’s a part of him you don’t see in most other accounts of his life. He definitely has been stereotyped as belligerent and egocentric. There was a woman named Sophia Dana Ripley who converted and was uncertain whether she would be a good Catholic or not; he would take people like that under [his]wing and explain that God accepts you as you are, that the church understands frailty and human nature and exists to help bring you into the embrace of God. He really could reach out to people in ways that he doesn’t get credit for.

Was he a creature of his times?
So many bishops of the time didn’t know how to deal with all these problems, so they would try to placate those groups they could. He was the sort of person who just said, “No, this is not acceptable, I’m going to launch into every battle on every front I have to.” That sort of person is indeed pretty rare, and the legacy of someone like that will always be contested.

It was a completely different time. He was inventing things out of whole cloth. There were no roadmaps for what he was doing in this country, for how to make it work. He was an innovator, with all the flaws and greatness that that implies.

Related: Below is a video on Fordham’s participation in the 2018 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City. Read the news story.

The 2018 Convocation, held in the McGinley Center Ballroom on the Rose Hill campus, recognized more than 40 employees with the Bene Merenti medal or the Archbishop Hughes medal. The honorees have dedicated 20 years or 40 years of service to the University. 

Three staff members, Elaine P. Congress, D.S.W, associate dean of the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS), Radek Kloucek, licensed electrician and foreman of the electrical shop, and Patricia Upton, deputy emergency manager of public safety, were honored with the Sursum Corda Award for their contributions to the life and mission of Fordham.

“Today we honor true stars who have been indications of grace and occasions of grace in our midst,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University. “[They are] men and women who have spent themselves in service of others and who have believed in, hoped for, and loved our students to a greatness they never knew they had.”

Father McShane took a moment to also reflect on the memories of four late faculty members: Ray Grontkowski, “a lion of the philosophy department” who was a staple at the University for 58 years; Kathy Schiaffino, associate professor of psychology; Edgar Tyson, assistant professor of social work; and Misha Zigelbaum, adjunct professor of mathematics.

“Together they devoted over 100 years of loving service to Fordham, and especially to their students and colleagues,” said Father McShane.

Among the recipients who were commended for being “visionary transformers” of the University was Spyros Efthimiades, Ph.D., associate professor of physics. As a physicist, the Bene Merenti medalist developed a theoretical model of weak interactions deprived of ultraviolet divergences. But his most extraordinary undertakings over the span of four decades happened inside the classroom, he said.

“I know that everything I share with my students doesn’t always appear in a visible way but it can transform their lives,” said Efthimiades. “[Mentoring] is a ritual that I will never get tired of doing.”

Congress, who was recently a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-NYC), said she aims to incorporate social work values and ethics into her interactions with students, faculty, staff, and administrators.

“The social work profession, as well as my personal and professional orientation, supports the values of promoting social justice and respecting the inherent worth and dignity of each individual,” she said.

A co-founder of the Fordham Center for Nonprofit Leaders, the Certificate Program for Executive Leadership, and the Master of Science degree in Nonprofit Leadership, Congress has been one of Fordham’s greatest champions.

“I am happy to report that a number of our graduates [from our programs]have moved into top leadership positions while continually demonstrating ongoing attention to social justice both in their internal activities with staff, as well as in their external relationships with communities, other agencies, and legislative bodies,” she said.

When they weren’t inspiring students with their hard work and dedication, recipients like Mathilde Fava, Ph.D., adjunct professor of communication, were blazing a trail at home. Favas’ daughters, Doreena, GSE ’96, Palmina, LAW ‘97, and Joanna, GSAS ‘13, said Fava’s passion for education was a fundamental factor in their success.

“Her passion for education motivated us to further our education and pursue Fordham,” said Dorenna.

“Fordham was a part of the fabric of our family,” added Palmina. “It was never an option that we weren’t going to get the highest degrees that we needed in our fields.”

An immigrant of Benevento, Italy, Fava described teaching as a childhood dream that was fully realized in her 40-year role at Fordham. She remembers commuting from Mount Vernon to Fordham’s Manhattan location, where she graduated in 1969 with a degree in education.

“It was not an easy task,” she said. “I was doing my homework on the subway. But if you have a dream or a goal, you have to have the determination and will to achieve it.”

Bene Merenti Medal | 40 Years

Diana Bray | Professor Emerita of Chemistry

Brian J. Byrne | Vice President for Lincoln Center

Spyros Efthimiades | Associate Professor of Physics

Matilde Fava | Adjunct Professor of Communication

Hugh C. Hansen | Professor of Law

Lawrence Kramer | Distinguished Professor of English and Professor of Music

Maria L. Marcus | Joseph M. McLaughlin Professor of Law Emerita

Ronald S. Méndez-Clark | Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature and Associate Chair of Modern Languages and Literatures

Philip Sicker | Professor of English

Larry Stempel | Professor of Music and American Studies

Harold Takooshian | Professor of Psychology, Urban Studies, and Organizational Leadership

Bene Merenti Medal | 20 Years

Michael Baur | Associate Professor of Philosophy

Mary C. Burke | Senior Lecturer of Economics

John J. Davenport | Professor of Philosophy

George W. Drance Jr., S.J. | Artist-in-Residence

Moshe Gold | Associate Professor of English

Paul Levinson | Professor of Communication and Media Studies

J.D. Lewis | Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of Biological Sciences

Chad McArver | Assistant Professor of Theatre and Chair of Theatre and Visual Arts

Bartholomew Moore | Associate Professor of Economics

Wullianallur Raghupathi | Professor of Information Systems

Martha Grace Rayner | Clinical Associate Professor of Law

Stuart Sherman | Professor of English

William B. Thornhill | Professor of Biological Sciences

Cynthia Vich | Associate Professor of Spanish

Sevin Yaraman | Senior Lecturer of Art History and Music

Sarah M. Zimmerman | Professor of English

Archbishop Hughes Medal | 40 Years

Ginger Calder | Assistant General Manager, WFUV

Gerard Cariffe | Associate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Fordham IT

Gregory J. Pappas | Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Services

Archbishop Hughes Medal | 20 Years

Betty Butler | Director of IT Operations Management, Fordham IT

Ann Delaney Chillemi | Assistant Vice President for Lincoln Center

Linda Duhaime-Candeias | Office Manager and Executive Assistant, WFUV

Richard Eberhardt | Director of Innovation and Change Management, Fordham IT

Yvanne Grandoit | Technology Support Engineer, Gabelli School of Business

Michael S. Hayes | Payroll Manager

Lisa Kelly | Senior Assistant Director and Academic Skills Coordinator, Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP)

Bernard Matthews | Director of Information Systems and Planning, School of Law

Michael Charles Mineo | Executive Director, Human Resource Management

Cesar Nau | Assistant Director of Network Operations, Fordham IT

Robert J. Parmach | Freshmen Dean, Fordham College at Rose Hill

Peter Patten | Reference and Instructional Services Librarian, University Libraries

Patricia Peek | Dean of Undergraduate Admission

Alissa Perrone | Assistant Director of the Louis Calder Center

Maritza Rivera-Garcia | Health Insurance Compliance Administrator

David Vassar | Reference Librarian, University Libraries

The Sursum Corda Award


Elaine P. Congress | Associate Dean, Graduate School of Social Service and Professor of Social Work

Radek Kloucek | Licensed Electrician and Foreman of the Electrical Shop

Patricia Upton | Deputy Emergency Manager, Public Safety