The new chair is in addition to four others in the sciences that she and the estate of her late husband, Steve Bepler, FCRH ’64, funded in 2017. To be titled the Kim B. and Stephen E. Bepler Chair in the Natural and Applied Sciences, the new position is expected to advance the University’s vision for excellence in science education by fueling new interdisciplinary research into today’s most pressing scientific challenges.

“I want to thank Kim Bepler on behalf of the generations of Fordham students who will benefit from her extraordinary generosity,” said Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham. “Kim understands the University’s needs as well as anyone, and has long been committed to high-impact philanthropy that furthers academic excellence and our Jesuit, Catholic mission. We are deeply grateful for her gift, and for her ongoing engagement with Fordham.”

The gift comes as Fordham is seeking to expand its STEM programs in response to students’ growing interest in the sciences. It will advance the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, and its goal of supporting student-faculty research, cross-disciplinary problem solving, and other facets of academic excellence.

The new Bepler chair will enable the University to recruit an intellectual leader and well-established scholar and teacher and provide this person with robust research support, said Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., provost of the University and senior vice president for academic affairs. The right chair holder could help attract other talent to the University while providing leadership on important scientific questions that bring multiple fields together, he said.

“Many of the most promising scientific discoveries of our day emerge in the interstitial spaces between disciplines—between biology and physics or between chemistry and math or computer science. Addressing the most complex and consequential problems facing society really requires an interdisciplinary approach,” he said, giving the examples of mitigating climate change, combatting infectious diseases, and reducing the devastating impact of neurological disorders.

For instance, he said, “when we initially fill the endowed chair, our greatest priority may be to recruit somebody who works on next-generation renewable sources of energy. Well into the future, Fordham may choose to recruit a Bepler chair who applies artificial intelligence to identify novel therapeutics or addresses other important issues and problems.”

Philanthropic Impact

The Beplers were already among the University’s most generous donors at the time of Steve Bepler’s untimely passing in 2016. They funded endowed chairs in theology and poetics and gave in support of the Fordham Founder’s Undergraduate Scholarship, the restoration of the University Church, a new organ for the church, deans’ discretionary funds, and many other areas.

Kim Bepler also recently made a major gift in support of the Joseph M. McShane, S.J. Campus Center project, another critical piece of the Cura Personalis campaign, and created the Fordham Ukraine Crisis Student Support Fund to help the University’s Ukrainian and Russian students facing financial peril because of the Russian invasion.

“With this bold and generous investment, Kim helps set the pace for leadership support,” said Roger A. Milici, Jr., vice president for development and University relations at Fordham. “Our Trustees have strongly supported all of Fordham’s recent fundraising campaigns: their gifts have accounted for 35% or more of each effort. Fordham’s philanthropic culture is dynamic, and we are committed to helping our mission partners use their wealth and generosity to improve the human condition.”

The four other Bepler chairs in the sciences—established as part of a $10.5 million gift—include a chair in biology, held by Silvia Finnemann, Ph.D., who studies the neurobiology of the human retina, and one in chemistry, held by Joshua Schrier, Ph.D., who is pursuing possibilities for automated scientific research.

The University is seeking to fill the other two chairs—one previously held by the mathematician Hans-Joachim Hein, Ph.D., and one that will be directed towards biophysics, Jacobs said.

The gifts to establish these four chairs, as well as the new chair, reflect Steve Bepler’s desire to give back to the University by investing in world-class science programs that he felt any world-class university needs, Kim Bepler said.

“Steve deeply loved Fordham, and it’s a privilege to be able to help realize his vision for the University and cement his legacy like this,” she said. “I’m honored to be counted among those who are supporting our extraordinary science faculty, with their dedication that so clearly shows the Jesuit principle of magis at work, and I’m excited to see how this professorship will help our science programs grow in new directions.”

Building Connections

Schrier said he decided to come to Fordham as a Bepler chair because of the University’s Jesuit identity and because the position offered greater freedom to not only pursue research but also involve undergraduate students in it.

The endowed chair creates a few different benefits, he said—it expands the faculty and creates capacity for new types of classes that might not be offered otherwise. And by allowing for exploratory, proof-of-concept projects, “it really kind of serves as seed money for doing creative and exciting things and then taking those initial results and showing them to federal funders,” he said.

“There’s just tremendous value for interdisciplinary work” in the applied sciences, said Schrier, whose own research applies computer simulations and machine learning to the search for applications for perovskites, a crystalline mineral.

“I hope that the holder of this position will be able to build connections and ties with different departments here at Fordham and show students how all of this type of work is connected,” he said. “I know I have a lot of fun talking to colleagues in math, talking to and working with colleagues in computer science and physics. I think interdisciplinary [work]is great.”

He spoke of a number of such projects, including his work with chemistry and computer science professors to develop teaching labs that expose chemistry students to data science, a model they published last year in the Journal of Chemical Education.

“I’m really excited about [the new Bepler chair], and I look forward to meeting the holder of the chair,” Schrier said, “because it’s always great to add to and build our intellectual community here at Fordham.”

The Kim and Steve Bepler chairs have contributed to an increase of more than threefold in the number of endowed chairs at Fordham over the past two decades. The new chair in the natural and applied sciences will bring that number to 73.

It is with great pleasure that President Tetlow and I announce the appointment of Ann Gaylin, Ph.D., as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, effective August 1, 2022. Dr. Gaylin comes to Fordham from Yale University, where she serves as associate dean for Graduate Education. Before arriving at Yale in 2017, Dr. Gaylin was the associate dean of Undergraduate Education for Academic Support at Harvard University. She has also served as an associate dean at Brown University, and as a program officer at the American Council on Learned Societies.

Dr. Gaylin earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Princeton University. She joined the faculty in the Department of Literature at Yale University in 1994 and has taught a wide range of literature courses at Yale, Princeton, and Brown Universities. A scholar of English and French 19th- and 20th-century literature and culture, Dr. Gaylin is the author of Eavesdropping in the Novel from Austen to Proust (Cambridge 2002).

Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers degrees in 29 different fields of study and enrolled 917 students last fall. As dean, Dr. Gaylin will serve as the chief academic officer of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; bear responsibility for setting and implementing the vision for the School; work in close partnership with the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, the dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and faculty of Arts and Sciences; and report directly to the provost.

Dr. Gaylin is a seasoned administrator with a deep knowledge of and commitment to graduate education. She brings a wealth of experience working with faculty in promoting academic excellence, encouraging programmatic and curricular innovation, fostering a diverse and inclusive community, and developing student support services. Through her many prior roles, Dr. Gaylin has consistently demonstrated a collaborative style and a pragmatic approach to solving problems. She impressed the search committee, faculty, and graduate students, with whom she met during her campus interview, as she conveyed her vision for how the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences can honor tradition while forming the next generation of teachers and leaders. President Tetlow added, “Dr. Gaylin will further Fordham’s distinctive Jesuit mission of cultivating critical thinkers who seek to put their learning in the service of a more just world.”

I would like to thank the search committee, chaired by Vice Provost Jonathan Crystal, Ph.D., for a comprehensive and successful national search under the unusual circumstances occasioned by the tragic and untimely death of Dean Tyler Stovall. I likewise extend my profound gratitude to Patrick Hornbeck, D.Phil., professor of theology, who ably served as interim dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from January through June of 2022. I have appointed Sara Lehman, Ph.D., to serve as acting dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for the month of July in anticipation of Dr. Gaylin’s arrival on August 1, at which point, Sara will return to the role of associate dean in the Graduate School.

Please join me in enthusiastically welcoming Dr. Gaylin to the Fordham community.

Sincerely,

Dennis C. Jacobs, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Held at the Joseph M. McShane, S.J. Campus Center in the week after Commencement, the ceremony was the first of its kind at Fordham. It honored those promoted in the academic years 2021 and 2022.

Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, told assembled faculty members, friends, and family that a university can be no greater than its faculty.

“The faculty develop the curriculum, they write the books, they teach the courses, they investigate at the frontier,” he said.

“At the time each faculty member was hired, we recognized in them and each of you the potential to do great things, and it’s only over time that that potential manifests itself in the kinds of achievements that we’re celebrating this evening.”

As part of the ceremony, Jacobs presented faculty members in attendance with a ribbon, while University deans read citations detailing their accomplishments—from papers published in prestigious journals to studies presented at conferences and memberships in academic societies.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, praised the faculty members, who hailed from the arts and sciences, business, law and social service, for their service during the past two difficult years.

He noted that while Fordham honors longtime faculty for their service at the annual convocation, their contributions also deserve recognition at this stage in their career as well. He thanked them on behalf of students, for expanding their horizons, challenging them, cherishing them, and lifting them to a level of intellectual greatness and acuity that they never thought they’d achieve.

“When I meet with our students, no matter what school they’re in, they talk to me about the faculty members who made all the difference in their lives. When I speak to the alumni, they don’t talk about buildings. They talk about how faculty members changed their lives,” he said.

“They talk to me about the way faculty mentors brought into their field of vision enterprises, initiatives, and fields of study that they didn’t think were open to them, or they didn’t think they were worthy of entering.”

“You are the heart and soul of the university.”

Dear Members of the Fordham Community,

I hope this email finds you well and safe, and enjoying as much of a summer break as possible. I am writing to let you know that Fordham has made the difficult decision of suspending all study abroad programs through the end of the fall 2020 semester, in the interest of the health and safety of our students.

For the past few months, we have been closely monitoring the COVID-19 conditions, in the 22 countries where Fordham students had planned to study abroad this fall, and studying the ongoing challenges of international travel as a result of the global pandemic. While Fordham has been working diligently to create a multi-faceted plan for social distancing, sanitation, testing, contact tracing, and isolation protocols on each of our New York campuses, it has become increasingly clear that we cannot provide this critical level of precautionary care at each of our many study abroad locations.

We continue academic planning under the presumption that Fordham will offer face-to-face and online instruction at its New York campuses in fall 2020. We are confident that we can do so while protecting the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff, subject, of course, to Governor Cuomo’s approval for reopening higher education in New York City. We will also offer the option of fully online learning for any of our students or faculty who might need to participate remotely, for a portion or all of the semester, because of health concerns, visa constraints, travel restrictions, etc.

In preparation for restarting campus activities, the University formed thirteen working groups across every area of operations from COVID-19 screening and containment, dining and residential life, student experience and experiential learning, and infrastructure and sanitation, among others. A website provides the charge and membership of each working group and gives you the opportunity to direct questions or concerns to any of the thirteen working groups. The working groups are coordinated by a steering committee that is developing a comprehensive University-wide plan. Fordham’s restart plan will be published and shared with students, faculty, and staff in late June.

We are currently accepting study abroad applications for the spring 2021 semester and look forward to restarting our study abroad programs when the public health situation permits us to do so. Students who had planned to study abroad this semester can instead pursue their fall studies at Fordham and consider deferring study abroad to a future semester, with priority placement.

As we prepare to offer a transformative education for our students this fall semester, please know that the health and well-being of every member of the Fordham community are of principal importance to us.

Sincerely,

Dennis C. Jacobs, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Stovall is currently the dean of the Humanities Division and a distinguished professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Before he joined UCSC in 2015, he was dean of the Undergraduate Division of Letters and Science at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2016 to 2017, he served as president of the American Historical Association, the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States.

“I am thrilled to come to Fordham, a great university in a great city. I look forward to working with our graduate students in arts and sciences as well as the other deans of the university,” said Stovall.

“Most of all, I look forward to learning more about what makes this university so special; getting to know its faculty, staff, and students; and becoming a part of the Fordham community.”

Fordham Provost Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., praised Stovall’s scholarship, leadership, and dedication to lifting up minority scholars and calling out injustice.

“In Dr. Stovall, Fordham has found a world-renowned scholar, an experienced administrator, and a public intellectual with a fierce commitment to social justice. A key theme in his professional life—as both a historian and an administrator—has been equity and inclusion,” Jacobs said in an announcement to the Fordham community. He noted that Stovall has challenged not only racial barriers but also those that separate academics from the broader society.

“Among the first African Americans in the U.S. to achieve prominence in European history, he has provided encouragement and mentorship for other minority scholars to follow in his stead,” Jacobs said.

Stovall earned a Ph.D. in modern European/French history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of 10 books and numerous articles in the field of modern French history, with a specialization in transnational history, labor, colonialism, and race. His latest book, White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea (Princeton University Press, 2021), is forthcoming from Princeton University Press. Others include Transnational France: The Modern History of a Universal Nation (Westview 2015) and Paris and the Spirit of 1919: Consumer Struggles, Transnationalism, and Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

In his new role as dean of GSAS, Stovall will serve as chief academic officer of a school that offers degrees in 29 different fields of study. He’ll work in close partnership with the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, and the dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

Stovall will succeed Melissa Labonte, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, who has served as interim dean of GSAS since January 2019. Former GSAS Dean Eva Badowska, Ph.D., now serves as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

To make this happen, the University is undertaking an unprecedented overhaul of the way it delivers academic instruction.

Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., Fordham’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said the new model, a “flexible hybrid learning environment,” will make it possible for the University to offer an excellent education to students during an uncertain time. And just as importantly, if another outbreak of COVID-19 forces New Yorkers to once again shelter in place, it will enable Fordham to shift seamlessly away from face-to-face instruction.

“None of us can anticipate how the next year will unfold in regard to the virus, because the epidemiologists are still studying and learning about it, and so much of it depends on human behavior,” Jacobs said.

“Unlike some institutions that have tried to play the crystal ball and said, ‘We need to start early and get done early,’ or, ‘We have to start late and get done late,’ what Fordham said was, ‘We wanted to create an environment that’s versatile and resilient, to deliver a quality Jesuit education under any circumstance.’”

The new model, which Jacobs announced to the University community on May 11 and detailed in the document Fordham’s Academic Approach in 2020-2021, relies on a blend of asynchronous learning, where students pursue assignments on their own time, and synchronous learning, via either in-person classroom teaching or through video platforms such as Zoom.

Planning for Social Distancing

Jacobs, one of the primary members of a task force convened by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU), charged with quickly developing guidelines and best practices for restarting of higher education in New York, said this approach will fulfill two distinct challenges the University expects to face when it welcomes nearly 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students back for the fall semester. For starters, it will enable Fordham to follow social distancing requirements that are expected to be mandated by the State of New York.

“We can take a class of 24 students who would normally meet once a week for three hours, split them into two groups, and have one group come for the first 90 minutes, and then the second group for the next 90 minutes, knowing that each group will also engage in asynchronous material, to balance out the course,” he said.

Many specific aspects of the plan are still in the works, and all nine of Fordham’s colleges and graduate and professional schools are working to implement it in ways that make the most sense for their students.

In addition to achieving lower campus density, Jacobs said the second concern the model addresses is the possibility that not every student or instructor will be able to attend class, due to health concerns, visa issues, or family issues related to the ongoing pandemic. Students who cannot attend classes will still be able to access asynchronous content, and synchronous content such as live lectures will be made available to them through videoconferencing technology. And if an instructor is unavailable for a time, students will still have access to the content they have prepared in advance.

Building a Flexible Model

He said the framework is akin to the bones of a skeleton, and that the University’s schools and distinct academic programs such as performing arts, lab sciences, and humanities, are currently putting flesh on it. It was borne out of open discussions held within the University community in April, and incorporated many lessons learned from the shift to online learning that took place in March.

“It would be like if you are in the middle of performing a play on Broadway, and someone says, ‘Stop! Now we’re all going to go into a TV studio and finish the play.’ How you do that on TV is very different in how you shoot and act than how you would do it on stage. That’s what we were faced with this year,” he said.

“What we’re doing now is building something flexible that can be done on stage or on TV, and therefore can accommodate all the possible scenarios that anyone might dream up for the next year.”

Doing that requires the development of content for courses that can be delivered asynchronously, a new skill for many faculty members. So this summer, professors are working with teams under the supervision of Steven D’Agustino, Ph.D., Fordham’s director of online learning, and Alan Cafferkey, director of faculty technology services, to transition elements of their course into Blackboard, the University’s learning management system.

“We start with the question, ‘What is the kind of learning you’re hoping students achieve?’ and then build out the kind of experiences in either the asynchronous or synchronous portions of the course that support that,” Jacobs said, noting that faculty will continue to refine plans for curriculum throughout the summer.

Fostering Community and Collaboration

The classroom isn’t the only aspect of University life that will change in September. In addition to the work being overseen by Jacobs’ office, 13 separate working groups from around the University are working on plans for how everything from housing and dining to the library will function once health authorities deem it safe to bring students back to campus. One group, led by Jonathan Crystal, Ph.D., vice provost, associate vice president and associate chief academic officer, is working on ways to help incoming first-year students form a sense of community over the summer that will carry on into the fall when they meet in person.

Through all the planning, Jacobs has consulted with counterparts at colleges in New York City such as Columbia, New York University, Yeshiva, and CUNY, as well as other schools throughout New York state and members of the Association of Jesuit and Colleges and Universities. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, sits on the state’s New York Forward Reopening Advisory Board.

“It’s remarkable, but perhaps not surprising, how similar our situations and our challenges are,” he said, noting that many institutions’ first instincts were to try to outsmart the virus, predict what its next move would be, and then create a solution that would match it.

“What we recognized is, whatever we come up with, if we try to do that, we’re going to be wrong. The virus is going to follow a course that’s far much more complicated than any of us can understand,” he said.

Maintaining a Commitment to Cura Personalis

The clarity and stability that are built into the flexible education model are also meant to enable the University to uphold the Jesuit tenet of cura personalis, or “care for the whole person,” during challenging times.

“Today’s generation certainly connects via social media to one another. Their sense of relationship is already very much tied to using technological tools. It is not as incompatible for them to engage in relationships virtually, and I think what we’re trying to do is build out opportunities for their relationships to bud and flourish,” he said.

Professors and administrators from offices such as Counseling and Psychological Services, Disability Services, or Mission and Ministry, and Multicultural Affairs are also striving to make themselves available to students, he said.

“They’re making efforts to make contact with every student, even during these remote periods, to let them know we’re thinking about them and care deeply about them.”

Fordham will post brief updates on reopening and other University matters by end-of-business each Friday on the Fordham Coronavirus webpage.

It was born in 1964 as a division of the Graduate School of Education, focused on preparing leaders in religious education, with a graduating class size of 24 and three Jesuit faculty members. Five years later, GRE became its own graduate school within Fordham University. Since then, it has taught more than 2,300 students with unique backgrounds and goals, from a Muslim imam who commutes to class from Florida, to a local pediatrician who tends to his patients’ spiritual needs, to a pastor who has helped integrate Protestant churches in the Northeast. 

“The Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education is really at the heart of Fordham’s mission, and therefore its 50th anniversary is a milestone for the entire University,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “GRE is Fordham in microcosm: a school dedicated to inward reflection upon our values, and yet deeply engaged with the community. It is an institution at the confluence of faith, leadership, and service, enriching us all with its scholarship and teaching.”

In honor of the school’s 50th anniversary this academic year, Faustino “Tito” Cruz, S.M., the dean of GRE, is pioneering a new vision for the school. 

“Our 50th anniversary is not going to be just a single event, but rather an ongoing ritual that marks the reclaiming of our vision to be in relationship with the community,” said Dean Cruz, who recently initiated a new partnership with Aquinas High School, an all-girls Catholic school in the Bronx. “This initiative, as well as others, will I think allow us to remain relevant for the next 50 years.” 

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative will take on a new shape. Dean Cruz said he is hoping to co-host video conferences with Aquinas to discuss issues and challenges the students may face, including food, housing, healthcare, and educational technology insecurities. 

He said he also wants to address the psychosocial and spiritual impact of the pandemic on the lives of faculty, staff, and students. 

“It is during an unprecedented time like this that the word ‘partnership’ must be authentically embodied and intentionally put into action,” Dean Cruz said.

A Universal Reach

GRE offers a dozen programs, both in-person and online. Over the past few decades, the school has also developed global partnerships with several schools, including Ateneo de Manila University and Catholic University of Croatia.

“Father Tito Cruz has provided outstanding leadership as Dean of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. The school offers students a breadth of innovative degree programs—ranging from pastoral counseling and ministry to religious education and spiritual direction—all to prepare its graduates to lead lives of solidarity, service, and justice,” said Dennis C. Jacobs, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

The school’s alumni come from more than 20 countries around the world. GRE’s online students live as far away as Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

“I wish I had a stamp collection. We have literally placed the University’s name around the world,” GRE’s first dean, Vincent Novak, S.J., once said. 

Most students who enroll at GRE are already teachers, scholars, or practitioners. After receiving their Fordham degree, many of them return to their native countries to put into practice what they’ve learned, as was the case for Imelda Lam, a Catholic school curriculum developer from Hong Kong, and Maria Echezonachukwu Dim, IHM, a youth program director in Nigeria. 

“More than perhaps any other school of the University, [GRE] represents the University’s religious tradition and its wide-reaching international interest,” said the late Joseph O’Hare, S.J., president emeritus of Fordham, on the school’s 25th anniversary. “Its alumni/ae, although small in number, but growing, are at work in many corners of the world, carrying the Fordham tradition with them.” 

The school’s students and alumni also practice a myriad of faiths and spiritualities. Among the student body are Coptic priests, rabbis, and an imam. 

For Rachelle Green, Ph.D., an assistant professor of practical theology and religious education, it’s a one of a kind experience. 

“GRE has some of the most diverse classroom populations that I’ve ever had the opportunity to teach in or learn from,” Green said. “I’ve been in a classroom with Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and we’re learning that not in spite of, but because of our religious beliefs and differences and experiences, our learning environment is becoming enriched.”

The Changing Face of GRE

Green, an African-American woman and Protestant who has directed a theological studies program in women’s prisons, is among two new faculty members who were hired last year. The other is Steffano Montano, Ph.D., a first-generation Cuban American who specializes in anti-racist pedagogy and leadership. 

Their backgrounds have made a difference in the classroom, said students. 

“[Dr. Green is] an African-American professor from the Baptist tradition. That’s my tradition; that’s my culture. I absolutely can relate to her from that context, which I haven’t had at Fordham in the past,” said Janiqua Green, a minister and doctoral student in religious education who lives in Harlem. “It’s just a different voice that I’d never really been introduced to before.”

In addition to professors, students of color have grown in number. Among them is Joanna Arellano, an online master’s student in Christian spirituality who lives in Chicago. She works as a press strategist for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and serves as a board member of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a grassroots nonprofit that addresses local injustice. She first learned about GRE through her husband, a 2018 graduate of the doctor of ministry program. A few months after her husband’s graduation, Arellano and Dean Cruz connected over breakfast in Chicago, one of the many cities he visits to recruit students.

“Just hearing from Tito that he’s been on this path toward recruiting more professors and students of color—especially women of color—that, for me, resonates deeply,” Arellano said. 

Over the past five decades, GRE has developed courses that address a more diverse population: Ministry with Latinxs, Women Mystics, Meditation East/West. They are now part of a curriculum that is challenging GRE’s students to face the world, said Rachelle Green, an assistant professor. 

“What does it mean to teach in a world where, quite literally, the world was burning [in Australia]? Or to teach in a world where gun violence is common?” Green asked. “Our students are challenging us, and the world is challenging us to respond with the best that we have to our current crises and age, but also to prepare our students to respond for what we maybe can’t even predict will come.” 

Photos from reception celebrating GRE’s 50th anniversary on March 6

So when Fordham ceased face-to-face instruction at 1 p.m. on Monday, March 9, due to the threat posed by the COVID-19 outbreak, faculty were faced with the challenge of providing quality instruction that was true to their mission of supporting students and continuing to foster their potential. On March 13, the decision to suspend face-to-face classes was extended through the end of the semester.

As they begin to deliver instruction remotely, faculty have turned to online tools such as Zoom, WebEx, Blackboard, and Google Hangouts to continue students’ education. And they have turned to each other for support, guidance, and tips.

Planning for the transition began in earnest during the last week of February, when Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, briefed members of the Faculty Senate at its monthly meeting on February 28. Administration officials had been monitoring the spread of the virus in China, and once a case had been reported in Washington state in January, they thought it might spread throughout the United States.

Jacobs said that at that time the University was already making plans to offer online instruction to students who’d been recalled from study abroad programs and who would need instruction while self-quarantining.

“That was the call to action, to say, ‘Let’s begin preparations,’” he said.

“No one would have chosen this as a normal transition path, but these are extraordinary times, and our options were limited,” he said.

“Everyone was committed to serving our students and allowing them to progress towards their academic degrees. It was not just an option to shut down the campus, we had to come up with a continuity plan.”

Technology and Pedagogy

Making the transition required overcoming challenges both technical and pedagogical. Steven D’Agustino, Ph.D., Fordham’s director of online learning, is helping faculty figure out how to best use that technology to deliver their coursework. He’s offered videos and documentation on the University’s Official Online Learning Page and his blog, Learning at a Distance.

D’Agustino said he was impressed at how seriously faculty have put students’ well-being and peace of mind first and foremost. Many are using this week, which happens to be spring break, to explain to their students how they plan to move forward with the rest of the semester and taking steps like telling them exactly what times of the day they’ll be checking their emails. Faculty are establishing virtual office hours when they’ll be available for in-person consultation, and giving serious thought to whether future classes should be held synchronously, when everyone meets together, or asynchronously, which enables students to access material on their own schedules.

D’Agustino encouraged faculty to evaluate their methods as they go, and to draw on the experiences of peers across the country who face the same situation.

“I would say reflective practice is really valuable. This about what you’re doing, and reflect upon it after you’ve done it, and try to include your students and your colleagues in those reflective spaces. Because I think there are a lot of good ideas and support out there, and we’re not alone.”

A Quick Turnaround

Eve Keller, Ph.D., professor of English and president of the Faculty Senate, said she was astonished at how quickly faculty, who teach nearly 2,000 courses a semester, were able to work together to make the transition.

“Faculty had 36 hours to convert their classes online. Some people have done this, and some people had never heard of Zoom, but from what I’ve seen, it’s been an unequivocally congenial, collegial effort to make it happen,” she said.

The transition has not been without occasional hiccups. Anne Fernald, Ph.D., a professor of English and special adviser to the provost for faculty development, emailed fellow arts and science faculty for thoughts on pedagogy on March 11, and after receiving 20 replies, she felt prepared.

Still, when she attempted to teach her first class on Thursday with WebX, she didn’t realize the program’s default volume setting for the program is mute. She ended up recording a podcast for it with the information she planned to share, and is confident she’ll be able to make it work next week, when spring break ends and classes resume.

“I felt like the University did everything it could in this emergency to support us. And I think that the decision to be closed on Tuesday and give people time to prepare was huge. I had colleagues all around the country who didn’t have anything like that. Fordham did it in a way that was as compassionate as it could be,” she said.

Striking the Right Balance

On March 12, Mark Conrad, an associate professor of law and ethics at the Gabelli School of Business, taught three courses—Legal Framework of Business, Sports Law, and Law and the Arts—using the Zoom platform, and was happy with how it came together.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy and accessible it has been. I had a number of questions from students. I wasn’t just talking to a computer,” he said, noting the ease in which he was able to share power point slides with students.

“We’re seeing future possibilities. It deals with something I’ve been thinking about which is, let’s say the professor is ill or has a sprained ankle. One could do classes like this, and it could actually minimize absences.”

Nicholas Tampio, Ph.D., a professor of political science, taught two classes on March 11 using WebX seminar after department chair Robert Hume, Ph.D., arranged practice sessions for the department. While they went off without a hitch, he said it was hard to read the mood of a room, as many nonverbal communication cues were lost in translation.

“When you teach online, you can’t see feet shifting, or if they have another browser open where they’re checking email. Their parents could be in the room, there could be a car going by. It’s not a controlled environment in which students are only there for the experience,” he said.

“I think I’m going to get better over time at being able to call on people, and I think I’m going to get better at organizing my slide show to make it more entertaining,” he said. But he acknowledged that face-to-face learning will always be preferable.

Edward Cahill, Ph.D., a professor of English, had never used Google Hangouts before and turned to it to teach Shakespeare’s sonnets and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. He found it to be similar to the normal classroom experience, although he said he plans to try different approaches to keep things interesting when the semester resumes, including splitting the class into both synchronous and asynchronous sessions.

Cahill’s new familiarity with online learning comes not only from his work as a professor, but also a student. His experience as a student in an entry-level Spanish class taught by Guillermo Severiche has given him hope that success is possible in the online realm, he said. Severiche, an instructor in the department of modern languages, moved their class to Zoom as well.

“We share documents, we used the e-textbooks. He managed the whole thing flawlessly. So that inspired me to think maybe I can do more.”

Cahill noted that he’s trying to be mindful of the challenges inherent in asking students to complete studies in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

“There are so many balances to strike between rigor and flexibility, generosity and intensity. I don’t know that anyone has figured it out, and I guess as long as we can stay alert to all of those tensions, we’ll probably find our way through it,” he said.

Doing Lab Work Without the Lab

In some fields, resuming instruction is trickier than just establishing online connections. Stefanie Bubnis, interim managing director of the Fordham Theatre Program, said that while mainstage productions have halted, faculty have bolstered instruction on Google Hangouts and Zoom with old fashioned phone calls and FaceTime.

Professors such as Ann Hamilton, an adjunct professor of theater, are learning on the fly as well. For her first online Acting for the Camera class, she asked students to upload the scenes they recorded of themselves to Hightail and Google Drive. She watched the videos during the designated class time and wrote feedback in a group email to the 17 students in the class. Ultimately it proved to be too time-consuming.

“For my next class I intend to use Zoom, so we are all conferencing together, but they will have sent me the recorded auditions first, so I can have them up on my desktop and we can all watch them together at the same time and actively participate in the feedback. I think the students felt as if they learned a lot today, so that’s a win, given the circumstances,” she said.

Stephen Holler, Ph.D., an associate professor of physics, was able to move the lecture for his General Physics 2 class exclusively to Blackboard, but that wasn’t an option for Experimental Techniques for Physics, a course where teams of students had been working on a single project all semester.

“Some of the work, they’re in the machine shop, they’re doing 3D printing, they’re doing electronics,” he said, noting that this work will have to be completed in a different way than planned.

“Since they’ve done half the project, and they’ve already written up progress reports, I’ll have them turn those progress reports into a paper. Normally I’d also have them do a presentation on a research project they’re interested in; instead I’ll have them write a short paper on that and we’ll do Zoom presentations.

A Big Shift for Information Technology

For Fordham IT, the switch required an unusually speedy response.

Alan Cafferkey, director of faculty technology services, noted that his team—which includes experienced technicians, a fine arts and digital humanities professional, instructional designers, a former math teacher, a librarian, adjunct professors, a media and accessibility expert, and an Ed.D. candidate—normally prefers to work with six months lead time to develop an online course.

“This, however, was everyone already two months into the semester with only a couple of weeks of realizing that something might happen, prepping, and then a sudden shift, with hundreds of people making the change,” he said.

He was especially proud that his team was so on top of responding to the multitude of individual faculty requests. In addition, in collaboration with the provost’s office, they created a Course Continuity site before the University shifted to online learning—as preparation for what might happen.

When the switch was made, IT as a whole simultaneously shifted its entire operation to function remotely—including the IT Customer Care help desk—while helping other offices do the same.

IT also rolled out an entirely new enterprise-wide system in Zoom, reinforced numerous systems, and conducted a multitude of workshops on topics such as teaching synchronously and asynchronously, setting up remote offices, and best practices for many popular web tools. Additional workshops will continue through the spring and can be found on the department’s blog.

Going forward, Cafferkey said the department will continue to field faculty questions and requests, work closely with vendors such as Blackboard, and support other University initiatives as needed. He credited the efforts of colleagues across IT, the provost’s office, the IT departments in the Gabelli School of Business and Fordham Law, the online learning teams at the Graduate School of Social Service and the Graduate School of Education, and the staff at Fordham’s library.

“I’ve been really touched at how kind most of the faculty have been about the support provided. I’ve gotten so many thoughtful notes and comments, it’s been really heart-warming. It’s helped that there are so many offices working collaboratively,” he said.

Looking at the Big Picture

Lisa Holsberg, a Ph.D. candidate in theology, found herself transitioning Great Christian Hymns, which she is teaching for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (PCS), entirely online. But she was in some ways already prepared to do so, as she is also currently teaching an online course, Christian Mystical Texts, for PCS. She was already accustomed to using Blackboard extensively, as well as Screencast-O-Matic and Voicethread, which lets students listen to each other talk, in their own words, about a specific problem. But ultimately, technology is just one little piece of the story, she said.

“It’s really, what is your commitment to students and to learning and going forward in the midst of change? How do you rethink what it means to teach, what it means to learn in conditions you’re not used to? You have to really dig deep into what your fundamental commitments are to your teaching, your students, to yourself, to your topic, and then just use whatever tools you have in order to meet those goals,” she said.

The Path Forward

Going forward, D’Agustino said he thinks faculty will settle into a hybrid approach for the rest of the semester, making tweaks as they get feedback from students.

“They may say, ‘We’re going to do a synchronous session, so here are the slides in advance, here is the reading material, here’s the study guide, there are some questions you should be able to answer during the session,’” he said.

“So even if a student can’t attend or log in, they still have the notes, the readings, the study guides, and they can say, ‘Professor I couldn’t log in; its 4 a.m. for me. But here are the answers to those questions. And the faculty member can, if it’s part of their protocol, share those answers with the class so that student is part of it.”

Jacobs said that he’s hopeful that faculty will rise to the challenge in what is an extraordinary time of upheaval. He noted that online instruction will always have a place in graduate level and professional-oriented instruction, especially for students who are working or have family obligations. As such, the University will continue to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. But face-to-face teaching and learning is at the heart of Fordham’s mission, he said.

“Jesuit education is really one of formation in context of community. We treasure that at Fordham, and we always will. It’s the reason why during the academic year, we have not, by intention, moved our undergraduate academic offerings into an online format. We’ve offered them face-to-face, and will return to that when it safe to do, when the virus has passed,” he said.

Ironically, the award was given to Hersh for a book— Reporter: A Memoir (Knopf, 2018)—that he never planned to write.

An investigative journalist who’s penned 10 books about topics as varied as Henry Kissinger, John F. Kennedy Jr., and the Gulf War, Hersh said Reporter was actually the result of his failure to finish what would have been his 11th book. After decades cultivating sources deep within the American military and intelligence community, he signed a contract and got a big advance to write a book about former vice president Dick Cheney. Then his sources got cold feet.

“I began to share some of the stuff I was going to say, and they said, ‘We’re going to go to jail if you do that,’” Hersh said at the award ceremony, held at the Lincoln Center campus.

“I’d gotten a huge contract and I’d worked for years on their money, and said, ‘I’m dead.’ [The publisher] said, ‘Well, you can do one of two things. You can go to the gulag and start paying us a dollar a week, or do a memoir.’ So that’s why I did it. Not for mercenary reasons, but to save my life,” he said, laughing.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, lauded Hersh, whose work also includes a 2004 bombshell piece about U.S. military abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, for being someone who educates the public through his life’s work. Father McShane called Reporter “a story of incredible strength, and incredible courage that is told with a very critical but loving eye.”

“There is one phrase that I think probably characterizes your life, and it is this: There is no hunger like the hunger of truth,” he said to Hersh.

“Once you have tasted it, it creates a longing, and you have spent your life really giving into that longing.”

Andrew Meier, chairman of the department of journalism at the New School, said at the ceremony that he read Reporter in one night and it left him mesmerized, stunned, and eternally grateful to Hersh for his work. He called it a landmark of our generation. When he reviewed the book last summer for Book Forum, he dubbed it a “miracle.”

“Hersh has done more than stand witness; he has done the hard digging, again and again and again, and even now, he’s still digging, five decades and counting of scoops,” he said.

In his acceptance remarks, Hersh also reflected on the lessons he learned as a young reporter covering crime in Chicago. Some were harsh ones about the pervasiveness of racism, even within journalism, such as when he was instructed by an editor to “cheap up” a story about the death of a family when it was revealed they were black.

He also recalled a time when he was instructed to self-censor a story about police misconduct to protect a good relationship with authorities. And in a knock at the current obsession with breaking news first, he also said he learned you could be a better reporter even if you were the second one to write about something.

Perhaps most relevant to today’s current events, he said, is the value of the sources that he’s been able to cultivate over the years. As an example, he singled out Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who sacrificed his career in the military when he leaked a report on Abu Ghraib to Hersh.

“Over the years I’ve learned that the people to find are those people on the inside who believe in being there even now, in this government, who believe the best thing they can do is the best they can. Who are inside, in a sense, and are not afraid to talk about things that go wrong, and take a chance,” he said.

He also had advice for aspiring journalists in the audience.

“If you want to do better in life and reporting, as a journalist, do read before you write,” he said. “Have enough information so you can do a narrative. That means do a lot of work.”

The Sperber Prize was established in 1999 by Liselotte Sperber to honor the memory of her daughter Ann, who wrote the definitive biography of Edward R. Murrow, Murrow: His Life and Times (Freundlich, 1986).

Past winners have included New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, for his memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), and Robert Miraldi, who won in 2014 for his biography of Hersh, Seymour Hersh: Scoop Artist (University of Nebraska Press, 2013).

The prize is administered by Fordham’s Department of Communication and Media Studies.

He comes to Fordham from Santa Clara University, where he served as provost and vice president for academic affairs for eight years. Jacobs led Santa Clara’s strategic planning process, recruited all of the school’s current academic deans, helped faculty launch the first three online degree programs, and created a new office for diversity and inclusion. 

As a chemistry professor for many years, Jacobs conducted research on reactions relevant to semiconductor processing in the microelectronics industry. In 2002, he was named the U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

In addition to his role as Fordham’s chief academic officer, Jacobs is a painter, a father of three adult children, and a brand new grandfather.

In a Q&A with Fordham News, Jacobs speaks about his early inspiration and outlines his goals and plans for Fordham.

What inspired you to become a scientist? 

My father was a fifth-grade teacher, and he would bring home materials from his class. He stored a whole boxful of things in my room when I was quite young, maybe 8 or 9. I went through the box, trying to figure out all the stuff: circuit boards, batteries, lightbulbs, wires. I started connecting them to see if I could make them work. I would make burglar alarms and small robots. If I clapped my hands, the door to my bedroom would automatically open. 

I would also plug things into the walls in my room. Some of them would spark, taking out the power to the whole house; other times, small fires would start. But every time, I learned more and more about how the world works. And I realized that although I thought I wanted to be an inventor, really what was driving me was curiosity. It was asking the question, why? 

You’ve lived on the West Coast for most of your life. What drew you to Fordham?

Given the location Fordham has in New York City, this global gateway, this mecca around everything from finance to fashion to media, how can this Jesuit university at Fordham be a real guiding light and partner in this region, and in the world? There are very few universities in the country that can do what Fordham can do, given its commitments and its location, and so what attracted me is to come and be a part of that. 

You’re the provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. What does that entail?

The provost is the chief academic officer. I’m responsible for ensuring that the student experience fulfills the promise of a Fordham degree. It includes things like international study, what happens to the library, undergraduate research, and the ability of our students to interface with the arts here at Lincoln Center. Whatever it may be, if it shapes the academic experience, it is the responsibility of the provost. 

You’ve attended many student research symposiums here, including this year’s Calder Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium. What strikes you about their work? 

You can see a student on fire. I mean, you can see students lighting up because they’ve found something where they can make a difference. Whether they choose to do it for the rest of their life or not, it is a transformative moment for a student to be able to say, I worked on tackling this issue or problem.  

It’s also important that our faculty are engaged in advancing the frontiers of knowledge in their respective disciplines. We create knowledge through research, we share that knowledge, we disseminate it in our teaching. Research plays a vital role in Fordham’s mission.

One of your goals as provost is to improve undergraduate retention and graduation rates. How do you plan to address these things? 

Intentional programming that meets the full and comprehensive set of needs of students is part of helping students feel very early on—sometimes even in their first six weeks—that they belong here. We’re going to take a deep dive into looking at how we can do better in that regard at Fordham. 

Another goal of yours is to better integrate the academic programs and communities across the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses. Can you elaborate? 

I think what brings us together is often when we think about large problems or challenges that can’t be solved by a single discipline or unit. That’s when collaboration across units makes even more sense. 

One of the things I’ve been working with the deans on is thinking about these bigger areas where we want to make an impact. Imagine urban inequality. It would certainly involve economics, but it would also involve understanding sociology and anthropology. Understanding educational systems where inequalities often exist involves understanding the law and social services, creating a response that’s holistic in a community or serving a need. All of a sudden, you ally units—students, faculty—around those kinds of problems. 

The geographic divide between Rose Hill and Lincoln Center is yet another challenge. But it gives us two very different local environments in which to live and work. As an urban campus, we’re also situated better than many to have authentic relationships with our neighbors and partners and address across a broad swathe of challenges and issues spanning from the Bronx to Manhattan. 

The University is creating a faculty space with 3-D printers and virtual reality gear, where they can try out new technology that might be used in their classrooms. It’s one of several planned projects under the Continuous University Strategic Planning (CUSP) Committee, of which you are a co-chair. Tell me about that. 

Yes, there’s a renovation underway in the lower level of the Walsh Library to create the LITE (Learning and Innovative Technology Environment) space for faculty to experiment—using cutting edge technology, virtual reality, and other things—and create a new learning environment for our students. In other words, we’re creating a place for faculty to come together and think and reflect on how their teaching practice can change and adapt to better meet the needs of students. 

Our students come to us today with a very different mindset than 10, 20, 30 years ago. They’re digital natives. They interact with each other and the world differently. And higher ed is changing very rapidly now. For Fordham to get ahead on that, I think we have to create opportunities for faculty and administrators to reflect on where our students are, what their needs are, and how we can best teach them. 

We’ll have a kind of a maker-lab type of space for faculty to experiment and try new and innovative things—pilot them, assess whether they have benefits or not, and to the extent that they do, then support and scale them up. We’re waiting for the contractors to start renovation on the space.

Lastly, what’s something that many people—particularly new members of the Fordham community—don’t know about you?  

I paint paintings and I play the piano. My art is eclectic: everything from surreal to abstract to landscape. It all depends on my mindset at the time. (See Jacobs’ paintings on Instagram @dcjacobs2.) 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Jacobs comes to Fordham from Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university in California, where he has served as provost and vice president for academic affairs since 2011. From 2004 to 2011, he was associate provost and vice president for undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame. Jacobs will replace Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., who died suddenly on July 2.

“In Dr. Jacobs we have gained an innovative and thoughtful leader, and one who is well prepared to lead the faculty during what promises to be a period of great change in academia,” said Father McShane.

“I am deeply impressed by his experience, intellect, and humanity, and am proud to call him a colleague.”

Jacobs said he was drawn to Fordham because the University understands that liberal arts education is about more than transferring knowledge and honing skills. Rather, he said, Fordham aims to develop persons of character and integrity who aspire to lead ethical lives of meaning and purpose.

“It is an honor and a privilege to be joining the Fordham community. I am excited to help the University adapt and innovate its program offerings, explore mutually beneficial partnerships, and launch strategic initiatives aligned with Fordham’s distinctive Jesuit mission,” Jacobs said.

A native of California, Jacobs earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University in 1988, and his bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and physics from the University of California, Irvine, in 1981 and 1982, respectively.

He first joined the University of Notre Dame in 1988 as an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry; he became a full professor in 2000. His research focused on reactions relevant to semiconductor processing in the microelectronics industry. Among his most notable projects was a yearlong experiment in 2008 that he designed to take place on the International Space Station. The experiment, which recorded how polymeric materials (plastics) degrade under continuous attack by energetic particles in low Earth orbit, was part of an effort to develop inexpensive, lightweight materials for use in next-generation satellites.

In 2002, Jacobs was named U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

At Santa Clara, he has led the university’s strategic planning process; helped secure many major fundraising gifts; assisted faculty in launching the school’s first three online degree programs; and provided leadership throughout the design process of several new academic facilities, including a new STEM complex.

He also created Santa Clara’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion, which supports deans and department chairs in the recruitment of underrepresented faculty and fosters diversity and inclusion in the university’s community and curriculum.

Jacobs’ hiring was the result of an intensive search spearheaded by a 13-member committee that sought input from the University community on who should replace Freedman.

Father McShane also announced that Jonathan Crystal, Ph.D., who assumed the role of interim provost after Freedman’s death, will be promoted to the newly created position of vice provost, the senior member of Jacobs’ staff.