His reasons stem from challenges family members have faced, and from his own experience as a first-year Fordham Law student whose vague worries about fitting in were quickly put to rest.

“I immediately had a feeling of belonging and felt a lot of support there,” rather than feeling like “the odd person out” as someone who came from a working-class family and was a first-generation law student, said Torrente, a senior partner with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in New York.

Cultivating that sense of belonging is one aim of recent law school initiatives such as IDEAL, or Increasing Diversity in Education and the Law, founded in 2019 to help New York City college students from underrepresented backgrounds learn about careers in law. Torrente gave in support of IDEAL before the law school’s new diversity effort got his attention.

Supporting Students, Unleashing Potential

The number of Fordham Law students that report some kind of learning difference has steadily increased during the past decade. The differences range from physical ailments to sensory issues, cognitive or psychiatric challenges, and ADHD. An initiative under development, Empowering Every Mind, is aimed at helping them thrive at Fordham Law and as leaders in the profession.

“As law schools increasingly think about the importance of professionalism and leadership skills, I’m delighted that Fordham Law is squarely focused on supporting our neurodiverse students in ways that will help them realize their full potential as future lawyers and leaders,” said Joseph Landau, associate dean for academic affairs at Fordham Law, noting that these differences can be sources of professional strength.

Torrente and his wife, Jill Torrente, had seen this in a few close family members who have had to navigate learning differences, ADHD, or physical ailments while working to live up to their full potential by capitalizing on their strengths and tackling their challenges. In fact, these experiences were among the reasons that inspired Jill to go to graduate school and earn her master’s degree in social work from Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service. “So when this initiative came up … it made a lot of sense for me and my wife to support it,” he said.

He noted that Kirkland and other law firms are striving to be accommodating to lawyers with learning differences. For example, Kirkland offers professional networks, mentoring, and other resources to support all attorneys in their professional growth.

“For me, this just is another dimension of making people feel like they belong, and enabling them to voice how they feel, and also make them feel comfortable being vulnerable,” Torrente said. “It opens the door for more candid conversations.”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key priorities of Fordham’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. Learn more and make a gift.

ENROLLMENT
GOAL: Develop Robust Admissions Strategies for Effective Recruitment of Students of Color to Fordham.

The Office of Undergraduate Admission continues to center diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of our admission and recruitment practices. By design, we are projecting to enroll a smaller entering class this fall of between 2400-2500.  As of mid-May, we were able to increase the percentage of domestic students of color in the class from 43% to 46%.  Additionally, international students increased from 7% to 9%.

• Asian-identifying students increased to 16% of this fall’s incoming class from 14% last year.
• Black-identifying students stand at 5% for the class of 2026 versus 7% for the class of 2025.
• Hispanic/Latinx-identifying students increased to 20% of the incoming class this year compared to 18% last year.
• The percentage of students identifying as more than one race increased to 5% this year compared to 4% last year.

To assist in the recruitment of such a talented group of students, the Office of Undergraduate Admission also continued participation in the National Recognition Program Scholarship program. These full tuition scholarships included the National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP), the National African American Recognition Program (NAARP), and for the first time, the National Indigenous Recognition Program (NIRP). For fall 2022:

• 184 NAARP Scholarships were awarded with 38 students enrolling;
• 281 NHRP Scholarships were awarded with 62 students enrolling;
• 19 NIRP Scholarships were awarded with 5 of those students enrolling.

The Office of Undergraduate Admission also offered programming specifically for admitted students of color. Sessions involved students, faculty, and administrators from various departments including the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Three events were held virtually on the topics of Finding Your Community, Academic Life, and Student Services. More than 200 students attended these events with 52% of those students enrolling. For the first time, two in-person Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging sessions were also held at Spring Preview. These in-person events featured a panel discussion with audience participation followed by a reception. Approximately 75 students and families attended at the Lincoln Center campus, and approximately 100 did so at the Rose Hill campus.

Fordham News

• The Faces of Fordham’s Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Med/Pre-Health Program
• Fordham Students Meet with Lawmakers to Make Case for Increased Funding
• Scholars and Donors Reception: ‘Thanksgiving in April’

HIRING
GOAL: Recruit and Retain a More Diverse Faculty, Administration, and Staff.

In support of the chief diversity officer’s equity advisor initiative, Human Resources is sponsoring fellowships for employees to complete the Advanced Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School.

Fordham News

• Convocation Celebrates Longtime Faculty and Staff

CURRICULUM
GOAL: Develop Curricular and Co-curricular Initiatives That Support the Imperative of Confronting Racism and Educating for Justice.

The Office of the Chief Diversity Officer completed a review of twenty-five Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) Grant proposals for AY 2022 -2023, ultimately funding eighteen of them, primarily in the School of Arts & Sciences, with grants also awarded to faculty in the Gabelli School of Business, and the Graduate School of Education. Seven of the grants will fund the continuation of current TRAC Grant projects that demonstrate special potential for sustainable impact.

Arts & Sciences DEI Events

• An Uneasy Embrace: Africa, India and the Spectre of Race | March 9 | Lincoln Center
• Decolonizing Anthropology presents Queer Fractals: Making Histories of Repair in Modern Jamaica | March 9 | Lincoln Center
• “I Wonder as I Wander”: AfroFrench Visuality and Black Spatiality in Contemporary France | March 10 | Zoom
• Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic | March 10 | 12 p.m. | Zoom
• Why Health Professions Need Fordham Students with Health Conditions and Disabilities | March 21 | 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Zoom
• Black Studies and Jewish Studies in Conversation: Bryan Roby, Blackness in Motion: The Centrality of Black Thought for Afro-Asian Jewry in Israel | March 22 | Zoom
• Disabilities of the Color Line: Redressing Antiblackness from Slavery to the Present | March 24 | Zoom
• The Racial Projects of “Latinx”: Lessons from Centring Artivisms and The Economies of Culture | March 28 | Lincoln Center
• What Would Ignatius Tweet? Jesuit Education, Political Polarization, and Today’s Controversies | March 28 | Zoom
• Shirley Geok-lin Lim Poetry Reading and Book Launch | March 28 | Zoom
• Distinguished Lecture on Disability – Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness | April 4| Zoom
• Sociology Anthropology Colloquium – Locating Racial Equity in Institutions’ of Higher Education Plans and Partnerships: The Case of the Illinois Equity in Attainment Initiative (ILEA) | April 6 | Zoom
• Disabilities of the Color Line: Redressing Antiblackness from Slavery to the Present | April 7 | | Zoom
• A Seminar of Digital Intimacies | April 7 | Lincoln Center
• The Study of Human Life: An Evening of Poetry and Prose with Professor and Artist Joshua Bennett | April 12 | Lincoln Center
• The MLL Vocab Diversity Initiative 2.0: “You Can’t Take My Language From Me” Roundtable | April 13 | Zoom
• Project FRESH Air Update | April 13 | Zoom
• The 3rd Annual Margaret Mead Lecture | April 21 | Zoom
• Book Talk: Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire | April 22 | Zoom
• Reid Writers of Color Series Presents: Renee Gladman | April 25 | Lincoln Center
• MLL Vocab Diversity Initiative 2.0 Roundtable: Linguistic Terrorism | April 27 | Zoom
• The Decolonizing Anthropology Project presents Diaspora on Trial: Obeah in the Americas | April 27 | Lincoln Center
• MLL Vocab Diversity Initiative 2.0 – Workshop on Bilingual Activism in Public Education: Creating an Action Plan & Design a Roadmap | April 28 | Zoom
• Melting Pots of Various Sizes: Jewish and Catholic Approaches to Americanization | May 4 | Zoom

Fordham News

• How One Fordham Grad Learned to Take Up Space and Work for Systemic Change
• Black History Month Lecture: Examining Art with ‘A Black Gaze’
• Grad Student Studies Impact of Social Media Discrimination on Adolescents of Color
• Biography of Trailblazing Fordham Law Grad Eunice Hunton Carter Earns PROSE Award
• Nationally Renowned Racial Justice Lawyer Addresses Anti-Asian Hate in Law School Lecture
• Fordham’s New Annual Theology Lecture to Host Scholars Who Address Racism
• The Impact of Racism and Environment on Students’ Sleep
• Teaching Theology to Women in Prison
• ‘What It Will Save Us’: MOSAIC Panel Addresses Environmental and Climate Justice
• New Group Connects FCLC Students with University Leadership
• Celebrated Anthropologist Explains Origin of Stigma at Disability Lecture
• Finding ‘Meaning, Purpose, and Hope’: Spirituality and Disability Symposium Explores Life Under New Culture

CAMPUS LIFE
GOAL: Create a More Welcoming and Affirming Campus.

The Office of the Chief Diversity Officer hosted a virtual convening of faculty of color and allies on Wednesday, May 18, to plan gatherings and activities for the 2022-2023 academic year.

The Office of the Chief Diversity Officer continues to partner with the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment and the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council to build Fordham’s DEI data infrastructure, focusing on student access, retention and success.

Fordham News]

• A Growing Network Supports First-Generation Students at Fordham
• Seniors Celebrate at Diversity Graduations

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
GOAL: Build Lasting Partnerships With Our Neighbors
GOAL: Amplify our Voice in Educating for Justice Beyond the Campus

The Office of the Chief Diversity Officer co-sponsored the Bronx Summit 2022: All the Way Up, led by FCRH alumnus, Kevin Brooks, on Friday, May 13. The summit was held at the Andrew Freeman Home on the Grand Concourse, and was the culminating event of the borough’s Bronx Week 2022 Celebration.

Fordham News

• Fordham Teams Up with New York Giants, Local Partners to Help Families Impacted by Bronx Fire
• Errol Pierre Is Promoting Health Equity Through Mentorship, Education
• Friends from Distant Quarters: Celebrating Lunar New Year with Fordham’s Newest Alumni Group
• Fordham Launches ‘Visions of the Good’ for Bronx High School Students

ENROLLMENT
GOAL: Develop Robust Admissions Strategies for Effective Recruitment of Students of Color to Fordham.

Undergraduate Applicant Pool Updates
Building on last year’s success in enrolling the largest and most diverse class of students in Fordham’s history, the Office of Undergraduate Admission is continuing its efforts to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups in the entering class. Applications from students of color are up across all categories.

Our total applicant pool for early action, early decision, and regular decision for students who identify as Black has increased by 6% to 4,079 students. During notification for early action and early decision, offers of admission to Black students were also up 6% to 735 students. Applications for all three rounds for Hispanic-identifying students are up as well. Currently, that number stands at 8,993, an increase of 4%. Early action and early decision offers of admission for Hispanic students also increased by 7% to 1,973 students.

There has also been an increase in applications during EA, ED, and RD from students who identify as Asian. To date, these are up 11% to 6,867 students. Likewise, 1,843 Asian students have already been offered admission during early action and early decision, an increase of 19% from this time last year.

New Scholarship Opportunities
Fordham has expanded our National Recognition Scholarship eligibility. For the first time the scholarship is available for students who are National Indigenous Recognition Program designees. This program, sponsored by the College Board, is being added to our existing National African American and National Hispanic Recognition programs.  Students admitted with this scholarship receive full tuition.

Programming and Events
The Office of Undergraduate Admission is offering programming throughout the admission cycle providing content specifically for students of color, as well as first-generation, local, and HEOP students. To provide continued access, most of the events are being held virtually. A combined 412 students and guests already participated in seven of these  programs which were held in the fall. Additional programming is being planned for our admitted students this spring.

Professional Development
In October, the Enrollment Group held a DEI town hall featuring Rafael Zapata, chief diversity officer from the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer; Juan Carlos Matos, assistant vice president for student affairs for diversity and inclusion from the Office of Multicultural Affairs; and Corbin Wong, director of organizational development from the Department of Human Resources. Representatives from the offices of Academic Records, Enrollment Services, Enrollment Research, Enrollment Technology, Student Financial Services, and  Undergraduate Admission participated. Additionally, Undergraduate Admission continued its engagement in DEI-related professional development opportunities through programs such as Linked-in Learning as well as the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s Antiracist Education Institute.

Fordham News

• In New Group, First-Generation Students Connect and Find Support

HIRING
GOAL: Recruit and Retain a More Diverse Faculty, Administration, and Staff.

Mandatory Student Affairs Divisional Training Day for Staff

• December 3, 2021: Universal Design: Intersections of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Disability and Accessibility
• Presentation/Training from the NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities as the day’s keynote session

CURRICULUM
GOAL: Develop Curricular and Co-curricular Initiatives That Support the Imperative of Confronting Racism and Educating for Justice.

On January 27, Rafael Zapata, chief diversity officer, and Anne Fernald, Ph.D., special assistant to the provost for faculty development, convened the recipients of 2021-2022 Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) Grants for a robust discussion on progress and challenges and provided ongoing support.

OMA completed training for the LGBTQ and Ally Network of Support and the Racial Solidarity Network cohorts for the fall, with the LGBTQ network wrapping up 2021 with over 1,000 community members that have participated since that program’s creation in Spring 2010. These two signature network programs invite students, faculty, and staff to engage in an interactive 5-hour workshop which has been offered in multiple formats during the fall: two days in person – 2.5 hours each, one 5-hour day in person, and one 5-hour day virtually. Participants are also added to a Blackboard organization with a variety of resources to supplement the workshop.

The spring Racial Solidarity Network has continued to be offered in February and anyone interested in joining this semester can click here to register. Participants can select to attend on either February 15 and 22, or February 16 and 23.

Fordham News

• Students GO! to the Bronx and Beyond Under a New Learning Model
• The Liberation of Music and Religion: Q&A with Theology Professor Rufus Burnett Jr.

CAMPUS LIFE
GOAL: Create a More Welcoming and Affirming Campus.

February 1 at 6 p.m.: the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer is co-sponsoring an event featuring journalist and creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and hosted by Fordham Law School, titled: Speaking Truth to Power: A Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones. Click here to register.

February 3 at 6 p.m., the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer is co-sponsoring an event hosted by the Department of African & African American Studies, featuring Tina Campt, Ph.D., Brown University, presenting her new book A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See. Click here to register.

February 9 (time TBD): the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer is co-sponsoring a virtual event featuring eminent philosopher and theologian Cornel West, Ph.D., Union Theological Seminary. The event is being hosted by the FCRH student organization ASILI: The Black Student Alliance. Specific details are forthcoming.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) cultural committees hosted a series of events for both LGBTQ History Month in October and Native American and Indigenous People’s History Month in November. Some of the events included the signature LGBTQ “Flags on the Lawn” program held at both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, and the 5th Annual Native American Festival on November 20.

In celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, OMA held Masses and receptions at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center on December 10 in collaboration with Campus Ministry, Student Involvement at Lincoln Center, the Center for Community Engaged Learning, and the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer. While connecting with Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders, both events were able to invite a mariachi band to provide music during the Mass in addition to assistance with interactive paper flower making during tabling the days before the event. If you are interested in learning more about Our Lady of Guadalupe’s significance and history, please view this video recorded by Juan Aguirre, Director of Mano a Mano.

The OMA slate of events for Martin Luther King Week 2022 (January 18 through 24) included a screening of King in the Wilderness, interactive tabling, and a social media campaign on Instagram.

Lunar New Year Week 2022 (January 31 through February 4) will consist of interactive tabling, a “Food Crawl” in New World Mall, and a movie screening of The Joy Luck Club: Rose Hill, McGinley Commons; Lincoln Center, South Lounge: 6:30 p.m.

Black History Month 2022 events include speakers, movie and trivia nights, and “Love Your Hair Expo” series of programs which will include a virtual panel and interactive tabling with self-care giveaways highlighting Black-owned businesses: Thursday, February 24: Virtual Panel 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., and in-person tabling from 12 to 2 p.m.

Please follow OMA’s various Instagram accounts to stay up to date on upcoming events
@fordhamOMA, @blackhistoryatfordham, @fordhamAAPI

Fordham News

• Black History Month Events
• Lunar New Year Events
• Asian American Writing Group Expands to Lincoln Center
• Fordham Panelists Explore Latin American Roots and How to Define Themselves
• LGBTQ Hudson Valley Retreat to Offer Fall Foliage and Spirituality

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
GOAL: Build Lasting Partnerships With Our Neighbors
GOAL: Amplify our Voice in Educating for Justice Beyond the Campus

Fordham News

• Fordham Partners with Bronx School to Revive Playground
• Fordham Students and Professors Document History of Immigrant Families in East Harlem

Over the years, I have told our students that I want them to graduate from Fordham bothered by injustice. That word, injustice, has taken on more weight in the last several years, as many Americans have—too belatedly—come to realize how pervasive injustice is when it comes to issues of race in this country.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew it  and he preached and wrote about it with painful clarity, perhaps nowhere so pointedly as in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

“… when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky…”

This was not about Justice with a capital J, nor a lofty philosophical argument (though Dr. King could make those like no one else), but a moment of shared pain between a father and daughter. It was not an occasion for analysis, but an invitation to empathy.

I believe that the ability to sit with another’s pain is what makes us fully human. To recognize that pain is to be moved to action. The struggle for full equality in our country for Black people is far from over, and perhaps has even been set back by the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected people of color. Likewise, while Fordham has made strides in combating racism and moving toward true equity and justice (thanks to many of you reading this letter), we still have much work to do.

I promise you that that work goes on. It may seem sometimes to be overshadowed by other events in the life of the University, but our resolve to live up to Fordham’s Jesuit calling to be people for others remains strong. We may best honor Dr. King by continuing his work, and by emulating his devotion to the cause of racial justice.

May God bless you all, this day and every day.

Sincerely,
Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

“The whole concept of sexuality was confusing. I chose to repress the subject rather than confront it,” he wrote in a memoir that he completed in 2017, the year before he died.

As he worked to overcome fear and secrecy about his own homosexuality, he wanted to help others do the same. This intention fueled his desire to write his memoir, not yet published. And it motivated him, in one of the final acts of his life, to make a gift to advance the cause of inclusivity and tolerance across all lines of difference.

With a bequest of $200,000, Esposito created the first endowment for Fordham’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, a fund that is now poised to bear fruit for the office’s programming. The funding arrives, in fact, in the midst of a Fordham fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, that has diversity, equity, and inclusion at its heart.

“He would be so proud to be part of this campaign,” said Jackie Comesanas, senior director of gift planning in Development and University Relations at Fordham, who worked with Esposito on setting up his gift. Esposito wanted to make a diversity-related gift focused on the Bronx and Fordham, of which he had fond memories, she said.

In the Struggle

A Brooklyn native, Esposito worked in hotels and catering during his time at Fordham and went on to become a hotel casino executive and entrepreneur.

He served as vice president of sales for Fairmont Hotels, vice president of MGM Reno, and president of Bally’s Las Vegas, among many other roles. In 1988, he founded the successful sales and marketing consultancy Hotel Management International.

He was a driven executive, at times “over the top” in motivating his staff, he wrote in his memoir, My Name is Joe: The Journey of a Gay Recovering Alcoholic in the Casino Industry.

He was also a talented salesman whose strength was his authenticity, said Robert Benz, a longtime friend and former business partner of Esposito’s. “Being real and being himself was what made him a great salesman,” he said.

But Esposito also felt shame at not being more forthright about his sexuality. Was He gained clarity about his sexual orientation in his early 20s but still “compartmentalized” it and avoided the topic, he wrote in his memoir. He wrote of spending time with three nephews during their youth and young adulthood, traveling around the U.S. and Europe, but never discussing his sexuality with them until he had reached middle age.

“Here I was, now in my early forties, telling these guys in their twenties that I was gay,” he wrote.

One of them responded by saying “‘How could you spend so much time with me and hide who you are?’ I gave the standard answer that, “‘Being gay is not who I am,’” he wrote. And—“I asked him why he did not tell me that he was straight.” (Later on, he said, “it was fun being his gay uncle.”)

Esposito said he met many heterosexual people who stood up to anti-gay bigotry. But hate reared its head often. There was a day in 1980, at the MGM Reno, when his secretary came back from lunch and seemed to be hiding herself a bit. He walked around her desk and saw a red mark on her face.

“I do not know to this day how I knew that Maria had defended me,” he wrote. He responded with some gentle humor, telling her they couldn’t get into a fight with everyone that called him a name—“If we did, then we would both be fighting a lot with our 2,500 employees and neither one of us would get any work done.”

In 1984, he co-chaired the Las Vegas Task Force on AIDS with then-governor Grant Sawyer. The AIDS epidemic claimed the life of one of Esposito’s best friends, someone whose family hadn’t known he was gay. At a gathering following the funeral, Esposito wrote, “the gay people were on one side of the room, the family on the other, and a giant division in between,” as the family reeled from both the loss of their son and what they hadn’t known about him.

“My generation often kept our private lives hidden from family. It was wrong for us to do whether they accepted us or not,” he wrote. “It took away from our personal dignity.”

Esposito did his part to help people shed secrecy and fear about their orientation, said his husband, Edgar Esposito, whom he wed in Las Vegas in 2015.

“He was a person who wanted everybody to be happy, and just help as much as he could to make sure that those who are gay and in the closet a little bit make their way out in a much easier way,” Edgar said. “One of his nephews has a gay son, and the nephew came to him to talk about his son, and he kind of helped the nephew understand that acceptance is a very powerful thing, especially when it comes to your child.”

Alcoholics Anonymous

Sobriety, supported by the spiritual aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous, was an anchor of Esposito’s life. He turned to AA at age 30 to deal with “blackout” drinking rooted in childhood fears, inner emptiness, and the stresses related to being gay in a world that was not always tolerant. “Many people in my generation were fearful” about their sexual orientation, he wrote.

When he walked into his first AA meeting, “it was like I met people from my planet for the first time.”

Forty-six years of sobriety, he wrote, “is the most important accomplishment of my life.”

Esposito struggled with cancer toward the end of his life; he died on March 4, 2018, at the age of 76, within a year of signing the agreement to create an endowment at Fordham.

Impact of the Endowment

The Joseph E. Esposito Jr., FCRH ’63, Endowed Fund will help the Office of Multicultural Affairs expand its various efforts to foster cross-cultural competencies, engagement of diverse students, and a more welcoming and inclusive atmosphere, said Juan Carlos Matos, assistant vice president for student affairs for diversity and inclusion.

“Now we can reimagine things in ways that we couldn’t before,” Matos said. He plans to manage the funding for the greatest possible long-term impact. “I feel like there’s an obligation to make sure we’re spending any funds in an intentional way,” he said.

The endowment could help send students to diversity-related conferences or bring speakers to campus, for instance; it could also give the office’s student-run cultural committees latitude to come up with more on-campus programs and events.

With more events comes more student involvement, in a kind of “domino effect,” Matos said.

“Once you’re able to do some larger-scale programs that have an impact … you’ll naturally then have more students that are aware of either what the office does or ways to get connected, and then those students then join the committees and want to continue doing that work.”

The endowment could be used to sustain one-time events that drew a strong response from students, like the block party held at the Rose Hill campus during Welcome Week this past fall or the diversity graduation celebrations held last spring.

The celebrations for Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ students and students of Asian or Pacific Islander descent were held in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, using funds that been freed up by the scaling down of in-person events during the pandemic lockdown of 2020-2021, Matos said.

The Esposito fund “allows us a level of sustainability for these really important events that we hope become markers of students’ experience here at Fordham,” he said. “The more you’re able to provide these experiences … that people look forward to, that increases a sense of belonging.”

Contribute to the Joseph E. Esposito Jr., FCRH ’63, Endowed Fund for the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student and make a gift.

If you have a question about giving to Fordham, call 212-636-6550 or send an email to [email protected].

“Diversity and excellence are not contradictory values, they are values that go together,” he says.

The April 29 event was the deans’ second forum for alumni on their commitment to furthering the University’s action plan for addressing racism and educating for justice. Fordham announced the plan in June 2020 after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice prompted members of the Fordham community to describe their own experiences of discrimination on campus.

“We’re asking hard questions, addressing proposals that have come forward, and moving forward indeed with hope and confidence into a future … that is marked by greater inclusivity, greater diversity, and greater commitment shared to building a much more just world as we educate for justice and seek to eradicate racism,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, in opening remarks.

Father McShane and the four deans were joined by moderator Valerie Irick Rainford, FCRH ’86, a Fordham trustee who is spearheading anti-racism training efforts within the University, and Rafael Zapata, Fordham’s chief diversity officer.

The panelists spoke of changes underway in the curriculum, recruitment of faculty and students, new programs, and other efforts to embed anti-racism in the University and effect permanent change.

“For students to come here from different backgrounds, it is vitally important that they feel that this institution represents them, that they do not feel like … they are here on sort of sufferance, that they feel that their communities are a part and parcel of what makes Fordham tick, what makes Fordham an excellent place,” said Tyler Stovall, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Faculty Diversity, Community Connections

Stovall emphasized the importance of forging links between the University and the diverse, vibrant communities surrounding the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Zapata noted current efforts like a collaboration with the Bronx Book Festival and a speaker series focused on Bronx writers facilitated by faculty. “We are an institution of this wonderful borough, and I think that’s something we need to talk about a little bit more,” he said.

In efforts to diversify the faculty, Eva Badowska, Ph.D., dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and associate vice president for arts and sciences, said 50% of the arts and sciences faculty members recruited to begin this academic year are people of color. In addition, Fordham announced the creation of the Margaret Peil Distinguished Chair in African and African American Studies and is currently recruiting for a newly created postdoctoral fellowship in critical race studies in the sociology and anthropology department, as well as a new position in the English department—a rhetoric specialist—to support the faculty’s work on revising the composition program toward anti-racist learning objectives and pedagogy.

Arts and Sciences also announced the creation of a new affiliate program in African and African American studies to elevate that department’s visibility and foster an interdisciplinary approach to anti-racism, Badowska said. Fifteen faculty members across departments have committed to joining the initiative.

On the point of hiring diverse faculty, Rainford noted that “once you hire those individuals, I think it’s also about inclusion and access.”

Stovall said a newly formed group of Fordham faculty members of color would be meeting soon to discuss diversity among faculty and at the University generally. “I think these leaders are going to have an awful lot to say, and it’s going to be up to us to listen,” he said.

He pointed out the importance of integration, “one of the terms we tend not to talk about.”

“Ultimately, what we are all about in this endeavor is producing an integrated educational experience and ultimately an integrated society,” he said. “Study after study has shown, in despite of people’s fears of integration, that actually integrated education benefits not just students of color but all students, and makes them stronger students.”

“This is a major pathway towards the ultimate goal of Fordham University,” he said.

Zapata said his office is offering a grant program titled Teaching Race Across the Curriculum to help academic departments integrate questions of race within their courses, particularly those that all students take.

“Students want to see themselves in the people that teach them, that they encounter throughout [the University], but they also want to see themselves in the curriculum. They’ve talked a lot about that,” he said.

Expanding Scholarship and Internship Opportunities

Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, pointed to the Office of Undergraduate Admission’s “above-and-beyond” efforts to increase diversity among incoming students. Changes this year include an effort “to appreciate and value a wider range of student experiences in the admissions process,” she said, as well as new events for prospective students of color who would be part of the fall 2021 entering class.

Also important, Auricchio said, is the recently created Trustee Diversity Scholarship Fund, which grew out of a scholarship fund that Rainford founded. “Before we could even announce it, we were starting to get donations,” Rainford said.

A new Cultural Engagement Internships program, funded by Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Fordham College at Rose Hill, has created paid internships that place students with New York nonprofits and cultural organizations that mostly serve communities of color or advance the work of anti-racism. “This opens up the internship opportunities to students who might not otherwise be able to afford” to take unpaid internships, Auricchio said.

And diversity in the yearlong Matteo Ricci Seminar for high-achieving students on both campuses has grown by opening it up to all students who want to apply, rather than relying on a select pool of students recommended by faculty, she said; she also cited the importance of bringing on Assistant Dean Mica McKnight, a woman of color, as co-leader for the Fordham College at Lincoln Center program.

Supporting Students

In other efforts on the undergraduate level, Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, said administrators on both campuses are developing a program to support first-generation students—61% of whom are students of color—and their families as the students navigate college life. At Rose Hill, the college is expanding access to undergraduate research opportunities by developing a one-credit course on the ins and outs of conducting research, such as developing a proposal and finding a mentor, Mast said.

“It’s … so important that we intentionally support students as they are and who they are, when they get to Fordham and when they’re at Fordham—that we are transparent and effective in this work,” she said.

In a culmination of longstanding efforts to increase diversity in the college’s Honors Program, 60% of students offered admission this year are either BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or people of color) or first-generation students, Mast said.

The University has also secured a planning grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to join a national learning community aimed at building capacity for developing inclusive, equitable, anti-racist approaches to STEM education—in first-year “gateway” courses, in particular—to support students who are underrepresented in these fields, she said.

The panelists took questions, including one about why the University doesn’t have an Asian American studies program with a major and minor offered. Badowska said she had met with members of the faculty—which would have to propose any new program, according to University statutes—about surveying the existing classes and resources to see what might be offered immediately while they work on developing a program.

“It is the curriculum that reveals who we are, and it is our academic programs that say we’re an anti-racist university or we are not an anti-racist university,” she said. “So that’s one of the reasons why an Asian American studies program is so critical for us to develop at this moment.”

Eradicating Racism

In response to another question—“Do you really believe that racism can be eradicated at Fordham?”—Rainford spoke of a long-term effort.

“There are some that still believe that racism doesn’t exist,” said Rainford, who is Black. “But the fact of the matter is, it’s in the fabric of everything in the country.”

“It will take time and effort, and we will not eradicate racism in our lifetime, but we certainly can help advance racial equity,” such as through the efforts the deans described, she said.

Zapata responded, “It’s going to take courage, the courage to … listen to the experiences of people who don’t always feel they have a chance to voice their experiences.”

Stovall said, “We currently live in a world where scientists are literally talking about creating human immortality in less than a century. So in that kind of world, I think all sorts of things are possible, including eradicating racism.”

Hurdles to Surmount

Asked about obstacles the University faces, Mast mentioned funding—for staffing, on-campus housing, and financial aid, for instance.

Badowska spoke of the challenges that would be inherent in changing the University’s culture to a point where everyone in the arts and sciences community would possess the five competencies that the deans have proposed:

• Knowledge about racism, white privilege, and related topics;
• Self-knowledge and a commitment to self-work and continuous learning in these areas;
• Commitment to disrupting microaggressions and racist dynamics in the classroom, the workplace, and beyond;
• Commitment to systemic change through examining policies and practices to make sure they support racial equity; and
• Reimagined community and allyship, or a capacity to form equitable partnerships and alliances across racial lines.

“We know that we have a long road before we can say that everyone has these five capacities, but we’ve identified them,” she said.

The event drew 64 attendees, nearly all of whom stayed nearly a half-hour beyond the event’s one-hour allotted time.

“That, I think, shows the great hunger and thirst that the people of Fordham have for this great work that we’re about together,” Father McShane said. “One of the things we have to remind ourselves is that this is a beginning, and that’s an important observation and an important thing for us to own. We have a long journey ahead of us, but we are up for it and will keep at it.”