Daylong Event Calls for Grassroots Action and Celebrates Fordham’s Role as EPA Grantmaker

We don’t all have to be scientists to fight climate change, a prominent marine biologist and activist told Fordham students, activists, and members of the Bronx community at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus on April 8.

“I think what the world needs, right now more than ever, are people who can move between different disciplines,” said Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D.

“We need people to solve climate problems in business, in engineering, in law, in medicine … all of these things relate to the world and how it’s changing. Everyone needs to know at some fundamental level what’s happening.”

Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the group Urban Ocean Lab, was the keynote speaker of Fordham’s second annual Climate Action Summit. Her speech, on a day when millions of Americans paused to take in a rare solar eclipse, was a reflection of her personal journey and activism taken from her forthcoming book, What If We Get It Right? (Penguin Random House). She also sat for a Q&A session with H. Shellae Versey, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Fordham.

The work she’s done on behalf of communities from New York City to the Caribbean, she said, was always bolstered by a belief that anyone can be a part of the fight–including those who, like her father, were held back by racism, or those like her, “brimming with juxtapositions.”

“I’m a scientist who always intended to have a career in policy. I’m the daughter of a practical school teacher and a wistful artist. I’m cold New York winters and Caribbean heat,” she said.

“I’m working class and Harvard. I’m Black and white. I’m urban and smitten with the wilderness. I’m proof of the American dream—and proof that it is all too rare.”

The notion of taking a leadership role in fighting climate change was also the focus of other activities during the summit, which was organized by Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning. An expo featured community groups, fireside chats, and panel discussions that examined federal funding for community-led solutions, as well as the future of environmental justice in higher education.

Elected Officials Celebrate Fordham’s Role as EPA Grantmaker

A morning press conference featured Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Congressman Ritchie Torres, who praised Fordham for taking on the responsibility of distributing $40 million EPA funds through a grant it was awarded in December. The grant, which will be administered by the Center for Community Engaged Learning, was the direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was passed in 2022.

No Better Place

“We couldn’t have thought of a better place than Fordham to dispense this [funding]to go to grassroots groups,” said Schumer, who was instrumental in passing the IRA.

Torres added the program is benefiting the Bronx not by accident, but by design. “We designed the Inflation Reduction Act to lift up the lowest-income communities of color, especially the Bronx, which has been Ground Zero for environmental injustice,” he said.

The Bronx Is Not Burning; the Bronx Is Greening

“For a Bronx-based institution to receive $50 million in federal funding to distribute throughout the region is nothing short of staggering and unprecedented. And so, with the partnership of Fordham University, we are writing a new chapter in the story of the Bronx. The Bronx is not burning; the Bronx is greening.”

Also attending the celebration was U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat. Others who could not attend sent staff members, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, City Council Member Oswald Feliz, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, and Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger. See more elected official comments here.

Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham, said the grant, which will see the Center for Community Engaged Learning working with partner organizations from New York to Puerto Rico, epitomizes the mission of Fordham.

“This is so very us, this idea of connecting science with justice, of thinking about how we wake people up to the dangers ahead, and the chances to work together and inspire action and bring hope to an issue that can make us all despair and want to look away,” she said.

Julie Gafney, Ph.D., assistant vice president for strategic mission and executive director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning, thanked those responsible for the funding, community partners, and all those that will be involved in the project.

“Many of you are going to be partners in this work as we move ahead and really reorient Fordham around an initiative of public impact and social responsibility and see how traditional teaching, learning, and research can be leveraged in real-time toward community solutions.”

At roughly 3:15 p.m., the moon will pass directly in front of the sun as part of the first total solar eclipse to happen in the United States since August 2017.

During the 2017 eclipse, the moon covered about 65% of the sun in New York City. This year, the path of totality—where the moon obscures 100% of the sun—will stretch over Syracuse, just 200 miles from New York City. This means the moon will obscure almost all of the sun in the New York City area. The next time an eclipse will happen in the Northeast will be in 2079.

The eclipse will begin around 2:10 p.m. and finish at around 4:36 p.m., but the best time to watch will be from 3:15 to 3:30 p.m.

Robert Duffin, Ph.D., a lecturer of physics who teaches astronomy at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, said the fact that the eclipse will be happening in the late afternoon means that any open space will suffice for viewing the event.

“You want to be in a wide space so you can see the effects of 85% coverage. It’s going to be dim, and you’re going to see a difference,” he said.

Eclipses play an important role in Duffin’s class; among other things, students learn that more than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle estimated that the diameter of Earth’s shadow at the moon during a partial lunar eclipse was two and a half times the diameter of the Moon. Ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos then determined from observing the umbra (or dark shadow on the surface of the Earth) during a solar eclipse that the Earth’s diameter is about three and a half times the Moon’s diameter.

Here are some great places to catch the eclipse. Remember, never look directly at the sun without protective glasses or other safe viewing methods.

The Bronx

Rose Hill campus

The Fordham Astronomy Club will be set up in the middle of Edwards Parade from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m. The group will use a telescope to project the eclipse onto a screen for safe viewing and also have telescopes set up for the viewing of Jupiter and Saturn, which will be visible during the eclipse. Contact Jackson Saunders at [email protected] for more information.

Wave Hill

The 28-acre estate in Riverdale will be hosting a viewing party from 12 to 5 p.m. Visitors will have the chance to pot seeds, make a festive eclipse party hat or celestial floral headband, enjoy live music and storytime with the Riverdale Library, and see the eclipse with free viewing glasses. Read more.

Manhattan

Umpire Rock, Central Park

The 15-foot-high, 55-foot-wide outcropping just north of Hecksher Playground is the perfect place to take in the show near Midtown Manhattan. Enter the park at West 62nd Street and Columbus Circle.

Pier I, Riverside Park South

Jutting into the Hudson River at West 70th Street, this spot guarantees unobstructed views, with the added bonus of seagulls who might not quite know how to react to the changing light.

American Museum of Natural History

The museum will offer family-friendly educational activities and will give out eclipse glasses while supplies last, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Read more.

Brooklyn

Green-Wood Cemetery

The cemetery will host a free event from 1:30 to 5 p.m. featuring special-edition glasses and telescopes equipped with solar filters. There will also be amateur astronomers to help operate telescopes and answer questions, along with self-guided explorations and artist-led installations. Read more.

On April 8, 2024, there will be an eclipse of the sun, visible from Fordham’s New York City location. According to the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, the oldest account of an eclipse was recorded on a clay tablet discovered in 1948 among the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit, in modern-day Syria. Ugarit was overthrown shortly after the eclipse, a fate we don’t expect New York City to suffer next week.

The 2024 eclipse will begin in New York City at approximately 2:10 p.m. and should end around 4:36 p.m. Our viewing area will achieve approximately 90% coverage of the sun. The optimal viewing time will be between 3 and 4 p.m.

If you plan to view the partial solar eclipse in the New York City area, you must take precautions.

• Make sure to protect your eyes with ISO-certified solar glasses from a trusted supplier when looking directly at the partially eclipsed sun.
• Do NOT look directly at the sun during the event.
• Sunglasses will NOT protect your eyes.
• Use sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.

Solar Eclipse Glasses
Beginning Friday, April 5, Public Safety will be distributing free ISO-certified solar glasses on a first-come, first-served basis at Room SL04  Lowenstein Center (just past the security desk) at Lincoln Center, and Thebaud Annex at Rose Hill. One pair of glasses per person, please.

All public libraries throughout New York City are giving away free eclipse glasses on a first-come, first-served basis. Additionally, free eclipse glasses are being distributed every day between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. at Moynihan Train Hall—MTA Long Island Railroad ticket windows (421 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001).

You can also pick up a free pair of “I Love NY” eclipse glasses at various New York State Welcome Centers, Thruway Rest Stops, and other locations throughout the state.

Following these steps will allow you to safely enjoy the view of the solar eclipse.

Sincerely,

Robert Fitzer, Associate Vice President
Fordham Department of Public Safety

Follow us on threads: https://www.threads.net/@ramsafe_1841

It had a kind of transcendent appeal, said filmmaker Carla Jackson, FCLC ’93, the administrator of the Fordham Theatre program. “We all stopped for a moment … to share something that science can explain, but that is still wonderfully magical,” she said. “I think that America needed this moment.”

As it happens, she had spent the prior months promoting a film that puts a spotlight on eclipses as well as the need to remove barriers so people from diverse backgrounds can realize their dreams of working in science.

Jackson co-produced the film, Black Suns: An Astrophysics Adventure, which is about two African-American astrophysicists who traveled the world to study eclipses. The film was directed by her husband, Kelvin Phillips, with whom Jackson runs a production company called the Bridge, short for “the bridge between dreaming and doing,” as she put it in an interview about the film with WFUV’s Fordham Conversations. (Go to the end of this story to listen to the interview.)

Narrated and co-produced by award-winning cultural astronomer Jarita Holbrook, Ph.D., the documentary centers on Alphonse Sterling, Ph.D., of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and Hakeem Oluseyi, Ph.D., of the Florida Institute of Technology, who traveled to eclipse sites as part of their research involving the solar atmosphere.

The Film’s Origins

Jackson and her husband were drawn to the project because they “try to tell stories that don’t generally get told,” she said. The idea for the film came from Holbrook, who wanted to highlight people of color who are trying to realize their dreams, and to emphasize that “we as a society have to work harder to make sure that we don’t shut doors” to them, Jackson said in the Fordham Conversations interview.

Oluseyi had many barriers to overcome. He grew up with poverty, homelessness, and gang pressures, but still managed to nurture an interest in science and earn a doctorate from Stanford. When he was heading off to college, as the documentary relates, his mother “gave him a hug and a gun,” Jackson said, because of the life his family had known. “They were actually taking care of him,” she said.

Science opened doors for him and leveled the playing field. “People weren’t looking at him as an African American per se; they were looking at him as a budding scientist,” Jackson said.

The film is mainly the story of Sterling and Oluseyi and “some of the difficulties and also some of the wonderful things that have happened along the way” as they pursued science and studied eclipses, she said.

“The whole point of the film is to show that … being a scientist isn’t always just sitting behind a desk and looking at [a]microscope of some sort,” Jackson said. “It’s not always that. And it’s also to show that whatever your background, there’s almost always a way to make something happen in your world if you are determined enough to do it.”

Listen to Carla Jackson being interviewed by Robin Shannon on WFUV’s Fordham Conversations:

Black Suns: An Astrophysics Adventure, also produced by award-winning cultural astronomer Jarita Holbrook, Ph.D., and Kelvin Phillips, follows scientists Alphonse Sterling of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Hakeem Oluseyi of the Florida Institute of Technology as they track the solar atmosphere during the May 20, 2012 annular solar eclipse and the Nov. 14, 2012 total solar eclipse. Holbrook, who appears in the film, is also the film’s narrator, and Phillips is the director.

“People don’t realize that there are many persons of color who are really interested in doing great things in the sciences, and are doing it in spite of their difficult backgrounds, multiple ‘noes,’ and a general lack of support,” she said. “These are stories that need to be told.”

The Common Language of Science

The documentary shows that, although Sterling and Oluseyi share some similarities, they come from different walks of life.

Before making his mark in astronomy, Oluseyi—a 2012 TED Global Fellow, and a frequent contributor to the Discovery Channel and National Geographic—faced poverty, homelessness, gang pressures, and other challenges. Jackson said the Florida Tech professor, who was raised by a single mother in the inner city, “beat all the odds” and went on to earn a doctorate in physics from Stanford University before working at the college. Today, on leave from Florida Tech, Oluseyi is serving as a Space Science Education Manager at NASA in Washington, D.C.

“[Sterling and Oluseyi] found their common language of science,” said Jackson. “Whether you’re interested in science or another subject, you have to understand that it’s not about where you came from. It’s about what you can do now, and how you can make it happen.”

Black Suns recounts the thrill of Sterling’s and Oluseyi’s pursuits of one of nature’s most captivating celestial events–eclipses–and the duo’s journeys to Japan and Australia to observe them. The documentary also sheds light on their personal journeys to becoming accomplished astrophysicists, and the obstacles they faced as minorities in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) field.

Watching the gifted black astrophysicists accomplish their goals on the big screen can inspire people of all races, ages, and backgrounds to reach for their dreams, Jackson said, despite the struggles they may face trying to get there.

“It’s important for young people of color to see people who look like them doing things that they couldn’t dream of—or maybe in some cases, were never told they could do,” she said.

Black Suns: An Astrophysics Adventure makes its world premiere at the 7th Annual Art of Brooklyn Film Festival on Friday, June 9 in Brooklyn, New York.