“The history of this area is absolutely remarkable and unknown, including the history of Fordham,” said Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., a psychology and urban studies professor who teaches the course. 

Urban Psychology offers Fordham students and visiting students a dynamic learning experience in the middle of Manhattan, he said. Through lessons in the classroom and walking tours in the city, students learn how living in an urban environment impacts them—their personality, behavior, values, and relationships—and what makes New York City unique. 

The History Behind Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s Name

Since the course began in early July, the students have explored sites across the city, including the United Nations headquarters, Wall Street, and the Javits Center Expansion Rooftop and Farm. Their final tour, co-led by Takooshian and longtime city tour guide Lee Michael Klein, revealed little-known facts about the Lincoln Center campus and the surrounding area. 

One of their first stops was Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “This became a world-class arts center. It was one of the first places to not just have a symphony, ballet, or the opera, but everything at once,” said Klein. 

In 1968—four years after the center was established—Fordham College at Lincoln Center opened its doors, said Takooshian. 

“The structure of the buildings in Lincoln Center is kinda weird, the way they put those windows, because it’s designed to match Lincoln Center,” said Takooshian. “Fordham College at Lincoln Center is literally part of Lincoln Center … It’s part of the complex that Robert Moses developed.” 

Denzel’s ‘16th-Century England’ 

Another highlight of the tour was a visit to the residential apartment garden where Denzel Washington practiced acting with his Fordham mentor and professor, Robert W. Stone, at 30 West 60th Street, where Stone once lived, said Takooshian. 

“This garden has been here since the building was built in the ’60s,” he said. The garden was freshly manicured with paved walkways and bright hibiscus bushes, but Takooshian drew the group’s attention to a shadier, less colorful part of the garden that borders 9th Avenue. “This side is older. Look over there, and you’ll see old benches and a tree with tiny little apples. I’m guessing that’s where Stone and Denzel met. It’s almost like being in 16th-century England.” 

While Takooshian spoke about the neighborhood’s history, a city ambulance drew near, siren blaring at full blast. 

“That’s New York, isn’t it?” Takooshian joked. 

‘No Matter What You See … There’s Always Something Else’ 

The afternoon tour was attended by a small but eclectic group of full-time Fordham students, summer session students, University faculty and staff, and friends of the group. Among them were students in Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, including a former ballerina from Los Angeles, and two U.S. Marine Corps veterans. 

Yuntong Zhao, a student at Barnard College, said that as an international student from Beijing, China, the tour was a special experience. “I don’t really know the city as well, so it’s an amazing opportunity to learn while experiencing the city,” said Zhao, who is living in New York City for the first time this year. “When I was choosing summer classes, I found Fordham to have amazing course offerings. It’s one of the most flexible programs out there at this time.” 

The tour was a unique experience for longtime New Yorkers, too. “Being raised in New York, you become accustomed to not doing the touristy things,” said Sathya Samuel Hayes Houston Breckinridge, a summer student from Cambodia who was raised in New York City. “It’s definitely an experience to do the things I’ve always heard about.”

There’s always something new to see in the city, no matter how long you’ve lived here, said Klein, who made the city his home since 1992. 

“The thing about New York is that no matter what you see,” said Klein, “there’s always something you’re overlooking—there’s always something else.” 

The coalition has more than 50 representatives from non-governmental psychology organizations, including Fordham faculty and alumni—most notably, PCUN’s president, David Marcotte, S.J. The scholars work together to develop research-based recommendations for policymakers at the U.N. 

“The primary goal of PCUN is to promote evidence-based policies,” said Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., PCUN’s treasurer and secretary and professor of psychology and urban studies and director of the organizational leadership program at Fordham. “We behavioral scientists feel that the best way to make policies is based on evidence. We conduct research on timely topics like migration and hunger, and research helps us find better solutions to problems.”

Throughout the pandemic, PCUN not only continued to work, but experienced its greatest growth, including a new book series that released its latest book this May, said Takooshian. Thanks to virtual programming, PCUN was able to increase the number of participants in its annual U.N. Psychology Day celebration from hundreds of people at an in-person gathering to nearly 2,000 virtual registrants in a Zoom call last year, said Takooshian. PCUN also started a monthly webinar series where scholars are invited to discuss their work, including renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., and Fordham GSS associate professor Marciana Popescu, Ph.D., an expert on forced migration. 

‘We Need Help From Everyone’ 

One of PCUN’s biggest contributions is its book series on how scholars can use behavioral science to address today’s global challenges, particularly the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030—a list of global challenges that the U.N. aims to address. 

All three books in the series can be used as resources in college courses related to psychology, social work, and international studies, said Takooshian. The books can also help people become more aware of timely issues—not just scholars, but people from all walks of life, said Elaine Congress, Ph.D., a book editor for this series and associate dean and professor at GSS. 

“Psychologists and social workers don’t have all the answers. There are so many problems facing the world, and we need help from everyone,” said Congress, a social worker who serves as the the main representative of the Fordham NGO at the U.N. “Our book contributors—psychologists, social workers, U.N. officials, heads of NGOs, and experts in other fields—really manifest this. It’s important that this is a multidisciplinary effort.” 

Researching Life-Changing Conditions and Potential Solutions

The book series was developed by not only Fordham professors, but also undergraduate and graduate students, some of whom are now alumni. 

Sanhaya Soi, FCRH ’21, connected with Sameena Azhar, Ph.D., assistant professor at GSS, over their shared Indian heritage, and they collaborated on a chapter about mental health in India in the most recent book, Behavioral Science in the Global Arena: Global Mental, Spiritual, and Social Health. 

“The way that mental health is viewed in Eastern societies versus Western societies is pretty different. In individualistic nations like America, mental health has a scientific outlook. In India, mental health is seen in regards to what karma or fate you are born with,” said Soi, who was born and raised in India and immigrated to the U.S. four years ago. 

Soi said she hopes her chapter helps people understand how stigmatization of mental health developed in India and other countries—an issue that will continue to stay relevant after the pandemic is over.   

“Mental health is something that people have been struggling with since the beginning of time,” said Soi, who earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Fordham and now works as a recruitment consultant for Kintec Search, Inc. 

Shenae Osborn, GSS ’21, who earned her master’s degree in social work and interned at the U.N., co-edited two books and co-authored two chapters. One of her book chapters, which will be published in the upcoming book Behavioral Science in the Global Arena: Global Health Trends and Issues, describes the difficulties of caring for a family member with dementia—an illness that is on the rise—and explains how to support people with dementia and their caregivers. Her other chapter, published in Behavioral Science in the Global Arena: Global Mental, Spiritual, and Social Health, shows how Christians and Jews often turn to their religion for hope, especially when they encounter a difficult situation like a terminal health diagnosis. 

Osborn, a psychotherapist and volunteer U.N. representative for the International Federation of Social Workers, said that she hopes her overall work makes a difference in the world. 

“I have had the opportunity to work on improving policies to reflect real modern-day situations like COVID-19,” said Osborn, a California native who plans to own her own practice where she can continue to work with low-income individuals. “My contribution, although small, is still a step in making a difference.”

A Longtime Relationship with the United Nations

Fordham’s relationship with the U.N. extends beyond PCUN. In 2013, Fordham became one of 16 universities to work with the UN as a non-governmental organization (NGO) that raises public awareness about U.N. activities and global issues. Fordham and the U.N. have co-hosted events, including the U.N.’s first International Educational Day. The University has also selected students for leadership training at the U.N. and developed a special field practicum for Fordham social work students who intern at U.N.-affiliated organizations. 

Takooshian said he hopes that PCUN will continue to help scientists reach policymakers, particularly with its book series that will expand in the coming years. 

“Almost everything related to peace, urbanization, and health is behaviorally-based. That is, human behavior shapes these problems,” said Takooshian. “The premise of our book series is that studying human behavior is able to reduce the problems, and I’m glad to say that the U.N. itself embraces what we’re talking about. In the past three years, they started a behavioral science unit. PCUN does not work with them yet—but it’s just a matter of time.”

Margot Nadien, Ph.D., a psychologist, author, and professor at Fordham for more than four decades, died of cancer on July 3 in Manhattan. She was 90.

Nadien taught psychology classes at the Lincoln Center campus for more than 45 years, including a new course she developed called Aging and Society, which is still being taught today. On December 9, 1983, she and psychology professor Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., co-founded the Fordham Lincoln Center chapter of the Psi Chi Honor Society with George J. McMahon, S.J., vice president for the Lincoln Center campus. The chapter won the Cousins Award in 1993 as the No. 1 Psi Chi chapter out of 1,100 U.S. campuses.

“Among her psychology colleagues of the past half-century, both inside and outside of Fordham, Margot was widely known for her extraordinary grace, helpful attitude, and ready smile,” said Takooshian.

Margot Ballon Nadien was born on May 25, 1930, the second daughter of Lillian G. and David H. Ballon, a professor of surgery at McGill University’s Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. She was a pianist, performing at the national level in Canada. She moved to the U.S. as a teenager to study music in New York.

On June 11, 1950, she married violinist David W. Nadien, who was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for several years under Leonard Bernstein. He died in 2014. The couple lived for nearly 50 years at 55 Central Park West, a historic building near Lincoln Center.

After teaching music for many years, Margot earned a B.A. in psychology at Hunter College in 1967, graduating summa cum laude, first in her class, and Phi Beta Kappa, according to the family obituary. She earned a Ph.D. in 1974 at the City University of New York Graduate School, where she studied under Florence L. Denmark, Ph.D., a pioneering psychologist and feminist scholar.

In the early 1970s, Nadien began as an adjunct professor in the Excel Division of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, then taught full-time in 1974 in the college’s interdisciplinary social sciences division. In 1981, she became the first psychologist in the division to achieve tenure. In 2013, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, saluted Nadien with the Bene Merenti Award for 40 years of service to the University.

Nadien was an officer in the NYS Psychological Association and the United Nations NGO Committee on Aging. Her work received many accolades during her long career, including the NYSPA Kurt Lewin Award (1995), and Wilhelm Wundt Award (2003). In the American Psychological Association, Margot was elected to APA Fellow status, based on her contributions to psychology as the author/editor of several books on diverse topics in the field, including gender, development, autonomy, and aging. She was featured in Who’s Who in America and was a lifetime member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Lambda, and Psi Chi, according to former colleagues.

At Fordham, Nadien’s many colleagues and students remember her as an extraordinarily gracious, kind, and supportive person, also known for her highly structured approach to classroom teaching. Even after her retirement, Nadien continued at Fordham as an active student in its College at 60.

“Margot was an incredible woman and her foremost concern was always people—students, colleagues, and staff,” said Cira Vernazza, associate dean and director of College at 60. “Even after retirement, she continued to learn and grow, ever mindful of keeping young.”

Nadien is survived by her brother Basil Ballon (Ruth) and sister Judy Levy (Norman), her brother-in-law Perry Meyer, and her sister-in-law Heather Ballon. She was predeceased by her husband, her sister Joy Meyer, and brothers Jonathan and Edward Ballon. She was cherished by her many nieces and nephews and their children.

Obit by Margot Nadien’s colleagues and Fordham News

On June 26, several experts explored that question at the Fordham forum “Healthy Cities: How Special is New York?” held at the Lowenstein Center on the Lincoln Center campus. The event, hosted in cooperation with the Manhattan Psychological Association and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues-New York (SPSSI), featured three main speakers: Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., professor of psychology and urban studies at Fordham and chair of the New York group for SPSSI; Arline Bronzaft, Ph.D., an environmental psychologist who helped design the current New York City subway map and update the city’s 2007 noise code; and David Vassar, a Fordham librarian who has advocated for safer and cyclist-friendly urban streets for the past two decades. 

“What really makes New York unique goes back to Fitzgerald and the Great Gatsby—that New York is the realization of the place where not only people can create themselves, but the city also creates itself,” said Lee Klein, a New York tour guide who gave welcome remarks at the forum. “Anything that people can think of, it can happen here.” 

The focus of the forum was New York City’s environmental psychology—the city’s relationship with the millions of people who inhabit it. 

“[Environmental psychology] studies the impact of the physical environment on the individual—not other people, not crowds, not interpersonal relations, but the physical environment,” Takooshian explained at the beginning of the forum. 

New York City has long wrestled with its physical environment—namely, noise pollution, said Arline Bronzaft, a member of the board of directors for GrowNYC, an organization that aims to improve New York City’s quality of life through community-based environmental programs. 

Too much noise can damage not only our sanity but also our sense of hearing, she said, citing a list of documented cases. 

Bronzaft herself was involved in one. Her 1975 co-published research paper studied the effects of noise on children’s learning. She found that students at P.S. 98, a school located at the northern tip of Manhattan, were negatively impacted by the nearby No. 1 line train tracks. Children in classrooms facing the tracks performed far worse academically than those on the quieter side of the building. 

In time, Bronzaft helped persuade the city to partially soundproof the classroom ceilings, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to install rubber pads along the tracks near the school, as she explained in a recent story by The New Yorker. 

But she said there’s beauty in the noise, too.

“We don’t want to get rid of the sounds at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. We don’t want to get rid of the shouts around the Fourth of July. And we do want shouts at the Mets’ stadium and Yankee Stadium because we want those teams to win. That’s the beauty of the din in this city,” Bronzaft said. 

“On the other hand, we don’t want our neighbors waking us at 5 a.m. We don’t want the construction sounds working after hours. You have to balance it,” she concluded, referring her audience to grownyc.org for advice on local noise issues. 

In recent years, New York City has also paid more attention to its streets and cyclists, said David Vassar. 

More than 300 miles of conventional bicycle lanes and 74 miles of protected bike lanes were added to New York City from 2007 to 2017, said Vassar, who cited statistics from the Department of Transportation in his presentation. 

Today, bicycles—eco-friendly vehicles, compared to their gas-guzzling cousins—are a popular form of transportation. Twenty-four percent of adult New Yorkers ride a bike at least once every year, and nearly 800,000 of them regularly ride a bicycle, Vassar added. 

“I’m saving money, I’m getting healthier,” said Vassar, an avid cyclist. “I’m getting vitamin D from the sunshine, which I don’t get sitting in my fluorescent-lit library, as much as I love libraries.” 

Toward the end of his presentation, he urged the audience to spark further change through campaigning, voting, and attending town hall and community meetings. But the overarching theme of the afternoon event was bigger than bikes and environmental psychology—it was about love for the iconic city. 

Thomas Mariani, a third-year psychology student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, had tested the topic in a scientific study. At the forum, he spoke about his research: an anonymous survey with 152 study participants that measured whether most New Yorkers live in the city because they “like to” or because they “have to” due to work or family responsibilities. Survey participants were asked to consider factors like the city’s fast pace, streets full of people, and constant sounds of the city, in addition to the unpredictability of experiences and ethnic diversity. 

He said he found that 58% of his study participants live in New York City because they like it, while 42% live here because they have to. 

Mariani, a lifelong New Yorker born and raised in Brooklyn, also gave a personal testimonial. 

“I can tell you,” he said, “from having traveled to over 30 countries—both due to the Marine Corps and working at the 9/11 [Memorial] Museum—that people love this city.”

He talks about why the Genovese case continues to resonate today, and what psychologists have learned about the “bystander effect.”

Full transcript below

Patrick Verel: This is Patrick Verel, and today, I am speaking with Harold Takooshianakooshian, a professor of psychology here at Fordham. Now, let’s start with the case of Kitty Genovese, whose death in 1965 first alerted people to what became known as the bystander effect. The original reporting by the New York Times that her death was witnessed by 38 witnesses that did nothing was debunked a long time ago, but the story still resonated as sort of a parable about the callousness of urban living. Can you tell me why that is?

Harold Takooshian: The issue of what is the relationship between people is as old as civilization. How should strangers react to each other’s misfortune? In fact, it goes back to scripture. In Genesis, Cain told the Lord, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Why am I responsible for other people’s welfare? In a way, you could judge a civilization by how people care about each other, and that’s very part and parcel to the bystander effect. If I may, I would share with you two stories that I think make the point. These are both true stories. One goes back about 50 years, but when I first heard it, the hair stood on the back of my head. There were two teenage boys riding their bicycles by the side of a river, and they heard some screams. One of them saw somebody in the river going down and obviously needed help. The two boys didn’t turn their back. One of them got off his bicycle. He swam to the person who was screaming, he grabbed the person, he brought the person to the shore, and he discovered that it was his mother. Just such an inspiring story.

The other story I would share with you is not that inspiring. It happened in July, July 12th, I believe, in Florida, Cocoa, Florida. A black man was drowning, and for some reason, he couldn’t save himself. He was drowning for several minutes. Meanwhile, fortunately, there were five teenagers there watching this. Unfortunately, those five teenagers not only didn’t help the black man, but they started shouting taunts at him and even videotaped part of his drowning, and he died. Of course, people were upset, including his sister, who said, “Why on Earth didn’t these people save my brother?” The sad fact is they weren’t accused of any crime, and they could have saved somebody that they didn’t save. That is so emblematic of the Kitty Genovese situation that occurred here in New York, the same thing 52 years later.

Patrick Verel: The bystander effect, as I understand it, it’s not so much about the result of a person’s damaged moral compass as it is about the confusion and chaos that comes from living in crowded spaces. The theory is if I’m alone and I witness a crime, I’m more likely to respond to it than if I’m surrounded by others, because it’s hard to know who in the group will act first.

Harold Takooshian: The bystander effect is a group phenomenon. Frankly, the boys are an example of the bystander effect. They weren’t accused of any crime, but that didn’t mean they didn’t feel bad. It was a group phenomenon where they saw each other laughing about it, and they redefined the situation. It’s not the they were immoral, but it’s that the group takes over. If I could summarize the bystander effect in one sentence, the more people at the scene of a tragedy, the less likely anyone will intervene. We call it diffusion of responsibility. The reason for this is people see each other inactive, and they give each other false information that it’s not really a problem. There’s no real crisis there. Kitty Genovese, on march 13, 1964, was screaming for her life, “Oh my God, he stabbed me. Please help me.” It was very clear what was happening, but people seeing this also saw each other. They saw each other doing nothing. As a result, from her point of view, they were ignoring her screams, but from their point of view, they were simply reacting normally to the group phenomenon. They’re not doing anything. She doesn’t really need help or somebody else will help her. The bystander effect, as you say, takes the morality out of the situation. Of course, the antidote to the bystander effect is to tell people what to do when they see a crisis, to not be fooled by the situation.

Patrick Verel: I want to share something with you that’s a little off-script but I think is related to this. Many years ago, I went to London with my then girlfriend, and we were wandering through Piccadilly Circus, which is a lot like Times Square. We saw a crowd of people gathered around in front of I think it was a hotel, and we thought, oh, it must be like a street performance or something like that. What we saw was it was two men actually beating another man very savagely. In fact, one of the guys picked up a street sign that had been on a heavy weight and flipped it upside down and tried to use the weight as a hammer.

Harold Takooshian: Remarkable.

Patrick Verel: In broad daylight. The giant crowd of people stood around kind of with their jaws slack. We, of course, did the exact same thing. I remember vividly that my girlfriend at the time grabbed me by the arm and just said, “Do something.” My thought was, do what? It was a really jarring experience and to see this group just frozen, just kind of not believing what they were actually seeing. I feel like I was a part of, basically, what this thing is, this bystander effect.

Harold Takooshian: That’s a very powerful example of the bystander effect. I would mention two things related to what you just said, that very powerful experience you had. One is that it occurs all the time. The importance of the Kitty Genovese tragedy is that it opened our eyes to this. We didn’t see it before, but as soon as the Kitty Genovese tragedy was identified by the journalist A. M. Rosenthal, we see it now all the time. My phone constantly rings about talking about how the Genovese incident relates to these remarkable events that we see that definitely explanation like what you said, people just standing there watching, frozen. The second thing, though, is those two fellows didn’t stop. They weren’t embarrassed by the crowd. My impression is that criminals, in general, know the secret. They know this. They know that people don’t intervene, and they almost rely on it. Unfortunately, that’s what happened with Kitty Genovese. That monster that killed her knew the secret.

In fact, the chief of detectives, Albert Seedman, in 1964, was so surprised when he heard about the Genovese incident, that there were so many witnesses who didn’t intervene, that he personally … The chief of detectives personally interviewed the criminal. He said to the criminal, “How did you keep attacking this woman with all these people watching you?” The criminal told him, “I knew they wouldn’t do anything. People never do.” Which is why your experience is so powerful. It’s the same thing, years later, in a different country.

Patrick Verel: This is a case that goes back to 1965, and New York City was on its way to becoming a much more dangerous place. I wonder, is it still relevant today in a place like New York City, where crime is much, much, much lower?

Harold Takooshian: This question comes up all the time. Have things changed since 1964? The answer is we can’t give evidence. We’ve done research, but we haven’t done the time series that really is essential. The second thing, though, is 9/11. The city changed in 2001. If you were here at the time, you may remember that you could see it. There were restaurants that were open, feeding people for free right after 9/11. For a few months, people were just in a different zone. I would say since 2001, in New York City, people have become more conscious of their community, more helpful. We have done research that shows this. We do get higher rates now of helping than we had in the 1980s and ‘90s. So things have changed, but I can’t be more precise than that.

Patrick Verel: How has the understanding of this phenomenon changed over the years? Is there, for instance, an agreement on when it sort of kicks in?

Harold Takooshian: The bystander effect is pretty complex. The key ingredient seems to be not the relation of the observers with the victim but that observers with each other. The more observers, the less likely someone will help, so there’s no cutoff point there. You could have just one observer who doesn’t help. You could have 30 observers who all help at once, which happens also, vigilantism. It seems like ambiguity is the key thing. Second to ambiguity is the belief that I shouldn’t get involved. In our survey, we found … On what we call duty-to-aid laws. Should the law encourage bystanders to intervene if they could do so? Almost every country in the world has a duty-to-aid law that says if you see a crisis, you should intervene. You’re expected to intervene. The U.S. is not one of these nations. About 18% of people feel that a person should not intervene when they see a crisis, because they’ll only add to it. 82% of people in the United States support a duty-to-aid law. They feel you should get involved. This is a very interesting area for me, because I’m constantly surprised by people’s reasoning when it comes to what they should do if they see a crisis.

Patrick Verel: You talked about this idea that these laws that dictate around the world that you have a duty to administer aid if you see a crisis. These laws do not, generally, be found here in the United States. Is this a unique American phenomenon?

Harold Takooshian: No. English-speaking countries value freedom. The ACLU considers this an infringement on freedom. The history of America is not individualism. It’s communitarianism. De Tocqueville, when he visited the USA in the 1840s, said America is great because America is good. People help each other. So the idea of helping one another is a very American idea. It shouldn’t be fought. Other countries have these laws, and they are effective. People should be expected to intervene. The law sets the tone. This is the kind of research I’m doing now. If something is illegal, it’s more likely to be judged immoral. It’s unfortunate we don’t have duty-to-aid laws. Nobody’s going to force somebody to intervene if they don’t want to, but people should know … Like the Genovese witnesses. They should know when they see something, the government expects them to call the authorities. England is another country that has no duty-to-aid law, and you saw yourself there what the tone was. Duty-to-aid laws make a difference.

Al-Bayati is no stranger to terrorism; during the reign of Saddam Hussein, he was imprisoned and tortured, and his brother was killed.

His response to fighting counterterrorism is outlined as a 12-step strategy in his new book, A New Counter Terrorism Strategy (Praeger Security International, 2017), and it takes a compassionate approach.

“The human family is one family, according to all holy books,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if there’s an attack in Florida or London or Germany, we have to care about all our brothers and sisters.”

Al-Bayati said that he understands the roots of extremism because he was born in an area where such thinking was fostered, and because he has faced terrorism himself. In order to diagnose the problem, leaders need to understand the mentality of the perpetrators and “how to deal with their views of violence.”

Joining the ambassador was Karen Lynne Kennedy Mahmoud of the U.N. Secretariat. Kennedy Mahmoud outlined some results of the war between the Iraqi government and ISIS. She described the malnutrition of infants, the existence of some 100,000 orphans, and an education system in such shambles that some children haven’t been to school in years.

“As they return to their homes, children, some of whom have not been in a classroom for three years, will need to restart formal education—or we risk losing an entire generation,” said Kennedy Mahmoud.

It’s within these depleted environments that terrorists find safe haven, said Al-Bayati.

Other speakers at the event touched on more intangible ways to address distress in Iraq and other areas devastated by war, terror, and natural disasters: Working toward emotional and psychological well-being.

Psychologist Judy Kuriansky, Ph.D., adjunct professor at Columbia University Teachers College, who provided psychological first aid after bombings in Jerusalem, the tsunami in Asia, and after the attacks on September 11, said well-being in one’s life can be a counter to choosing terrorism.

“There are certainly psychological dynamics as to why someone wants to be [an]extremist,” said Kuriansky, who singled out the need for happiness. “We need to understand the importance of psychology.”

Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the Organizational Leadership program, said that it is unfortunate that the American Psychological Association does not allow psychologists to “even be in the same room as terrorists,” but he credited behavioral scientists for continuing research into what causes people to become terrorists.

“On one level, policies can help reduce terrorism,” he said. “But on another level we can prevent terrorism in the first place by understanding why people turn their backs on their nation.”

It was a big moment for the graduates—whose parents, spouses, and children cheered them on loudly in the McGinley Center. A college degree is an accomplishment anyone should be proud of, but for the adult and nontraditional students at PCS, the road to graduation is often more complex.

“For most of us,” said Leeolou, 24, “making it to this day may well have demanded a bit more creativity or resourcefulness than it did for those who had a more traditional student experience.” She liked the sound of the word “nontraditional,” she said from the podium, joking that it has a nice “Steve Jobs” ring to it.

But all “nontraditional” really means, she said, “is that we found ways to make success possible regardless of our circumstances.”

That was certainly the case for Leeolou. A ballerina from Long Island, she began dancing in Manhattan when she was 10. She trained and performed in some of the best institutes and companies in the world, from Moscow to New York City. In 2009, she enrolled part time at PCS while she continued to dance.

Changing Course

But soon after, injury struck. Leeolou had been dancing on a bad stress fracture when she broke an ankle, tore a tendon, and dislocated bones. After several surgeries and painful rehabilitation, she decided to focus completely on her education and started a full-time schedule at Fordham. She calls her diverse group of classmates a “highlight” of her education.

“Being in school with other adults and people from all walks of life really helped me transition during a very difficult time,” said Leeolou, who graduated summa cum laude. She completed a double major in psychology and theology and a minor in bioethics, all while continuing to make public appearances as an advocate for those suffering from severe psoriasis, a painful autoimmune disease she’s had since birth.

“The flexibility of my schedule through PCS permitted me to attend conferences and work,” she said.

Leeolou had to manage the disease—which attacks the skin and joints—throughout her dancing career. There were times when psoriasis covered 80 percent of her body. Sometimes she’d have to apply hot compresses and ointments each morning, just so her skin would be supple enough to move. Patients living with the condition often have trouble getting insurance companies to pay for their medication, so Leeolou advocates for better patient access to the drugs they need. She’s spoken at national and international conferences, and appeared on The Dr. Oz Show and other TV programs.

Discovering a Passion for Medicine

“For me [the bioethics minor] was the intersection of patient advocacy work that I’ve been doing and medicine. It was fabulous,” she said. The program introduces students to critical moral questions related to individual, public, and global health, and focuses on healthcare decision-making and health policy.

Leeolou said she’s passionate about pursuing a career in the field because it will allow her “to recognize the sick and disabled as individuals, representative of courage and deserving of dignity,” and to “harness the memory of my painful symptoms and use them as tools of empathy.” She’s been accepted to two graduate programs in medical ethics for the fall—at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. She hopes to eventually go to medical school.

Charles Camosy, PhD, associate professor of theology, taught Leeolou in two bioethics courses. He praised her determination.

“I’m not sure I’ve encountered a student with her combination of raw brain power, other-centered heart, and fierce will,” he said. “Melissa simply won’t let anything stand in the way of her helping the vulnerable and the sick.”

Leeolou also made a splash in the psychology department, where she received the inaugural Anne Leicht Service Award, named for a former administrator in the department who died in 2011.

Harold Takooshian, PhD, professor of psychology at Fordham, nominated Leeolou for the award. He said she stood out as a star in his classes, writing a paper on homicide survivors that he called “by far the best undergraduate report I have seen in 40 years.”

A career in medicine seems like a perfect fit for her, Takooshian said. “There’s some passion in her that I can see is going to make her an excellent physician.”

Talent and Dreams Intersect

Reflecting on her college career in her graduation speech, Leeolou said she was grateful that Fordham allowed her to excel at the things she was most passionate about.

“Fordham understands that talents come in many forms, and that the most valuable education is one that connects with individual interests of the students, where each student discovers not only a wealth of knowledge but also where their talents and dreams intersect.”

To her fellow graduates, she said, “I hope that that life surprises us. I hope it transforms us.”

That’s the kind of conundrum that Fordham students are examining this fall in a new course, The UN and Global Leadership, that offers an inside take on the tricky process of building consensus at the United Nations building across town.

First taught over the summer by Iraq’s former UN ambassador, the course is being taught this term by Dinesh Sharma, PhD, an author, psychologist, and international correspondent who has many UN-related contacts.

Like, for instance, the sister of President Barack Obama.

Maya Soetoro-Ng, PhD—a multicultural education expert at the University of Hawaii and co-founder of a nongovernmental organization that works for peace—spoke to the class via teleconference on Sept. 28. As it happened, she was discussing the United Nations and peace-building on the very day that her brother touched on that same topic in an address to the UN General Assembly.

“It was just a treat for our students to speak with her,” said Fordham psychology professor Harold Takooshian, PhD, who was there. “It was a beautiful platform for her to talk about peace education and training young people.”

The class—part of the organizational leadership program, which Takooshian oversees—is one of Fordham’s latest efforts to leverage the proximity of the United Nations for students’ benefit.

Students will learn about it via in-class speakers, meetings with UN ambassadors, and visits to UN missions and to the United Nations itself, Sharma said. Students will also seek internships and work experience at the United Nations and with NGOs that interact with it.

Sharma’s background is well suited to the course. He has a doctorate in psychology and human development from Harvard, serves as an associate research professor at SUNY Binghamton, and covers President Obama’s global policies for Asia Times Online and other publications.

He’s also written two books on President Obama, which led Takooshian to seek him out as instructor. Sharma will focus on American leadership at the United Nations, as well as the cultural differences to be bridged there.

For instance, he said, “the UN charter and the human rights convention are part and parcel of western civilizational values, namely individual rights, individual property, ownership, the right to speak your mind,” he said. But applying these standards to Islamic societies or to Asian cultures “that may want to stress collective obligations over individual rights” poses difficult questions, which students will confront in class, Sharma said.

Also coming up, on Oct. 26, is a panel discussion on psychobiograpy—the study of how leaders’ behavior is shaped by their experiences—and discussion of how effective leadership is seen across cultures. One example is the more verbally busy leadership styles in the United States—“setting targets, meeting those targets, and then announcing that you have met those targets”—that wouldn’t be welcome everywhere, he said.

“In China, if you talk too much you’re seen as, potentially, not an effective leader,” Sharma said. “Effective leaders are seen as the strong and silent type.”

Cultural divides were one topic during the Sept. 28 teleconference with Maya Soetoro-Ng, co-founder of Ceeds of Peace, an NGO devoted to fostering peace-building and problem-solving skills in communities.

Among other things, she spoke about how she and her brother were raised by a mother—Ann Dunham—who was “very interested in global competency” and how that affected them both, said one student, Ann Leyden.

Also discussed was Dunham’s passion for promoting microfinance as a way to empower women in developing countries. In Dunham’s work, “you start to see how something so global could become more personal,” said another student, Jolette Crawford. “It shows just how, from the bottom up, communities can build and can grow and can become, I would say, instrumental in global growth.”

That was the message delivered by David Robinson, S.J., associate director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality, on April 19 to an auditorium full of IT professionals from Jesuit colleges and universities.

His presentation, “The Role of IT in the Jesuit Mission,” was part of the 25th annual Conference on Information Technology Management, a three-day event held at the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. It was co-sponsored by Fordham and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

Father Robinson was joined by three panelists from Fordham College at Lincoln Center: Harold Takooshian Ph.D., professor of psychology; Robert Wasserman, Ph.D., associate professor of English; and Vincent DeCola, S.J., assistant dean of academic advising.

As far back as 1556, Jesuits utilized printing presses in Goa, Father Robinson said. In the 17th centuries, Matteo Ricci, S.J., conducted serious research at the observatory at Beijing University, he added.

“Technology, science and exploration were intrinsic parts of what it meant to be in Ignatian mission way back in the 16th century,” he said.

The panelists focused on how technology can be used to bridge gaps in communication—not just stay up to date with newest fad.

Takooshian asked attendees to consider what he called reverse mentoring.

“In the American Psychology Association, we felt that it was possible to take the natural gift that youngsters have for technology, which very often the old timers don’t have, and institute reverse mentoring,” Takooshian said.

Wasserman said that while some forms of technology—like those that allow students to collaborate on writing assignments—have helped, others times technology has been lauded for its own sake.

“The lesson I need to learn from my students is to get off the technical side of IT and realize that it is a communication medium,” he said. “When we see texting and Facebook and Twitter, we’re seeing expertise in a technology. But the message that has to emerge is that technology is about communication.”

Father DeCola noted that while the traditional debate over whether technology is dehumanizing still exists, concerns being raised today have some elements in common with the past.

“We all know the famous talk about ‘young people today,’ and it turns out to be a quote from Socrates,” he said. “Generational gaps have been around forever, and maybe technology is just the latest one.”

Don Tapscott’s Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation (McGraw-Hill, 1997) has helped Father DeCola’s staff get a better sense of the role of technology in students’ lives, he said.

“It’s just the air they breathe these days,” he said.

Jesuit educators need not worry about technology replacing the critical role of the mentor—someone who has the ability to amplify and clarify context, Father Robinson said. There’s a false assumption that people can discover everything they need to know through Google and Wikipedia.

“Information is not knowledge; that’s one of the great disasters of the digital age,” he said. “We assume that if you have more content, you’re a better student, that if you have more information you are a more educated person.

“But it’s the geography of the learner and the learning that is critical in a Jesuit context. That’s precisely the point.”

To prepare students for the implications of the new law governing credit cards that takes effect today, Psychology Professor Harold Takooshian presented a public forum on the law’s provisions on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

The forum, “The U.S. CARD Act: Coping with students’ financial $tress,” was months in the making. It was prompted by statistics showing that half of all college students report financial stress. What is worse, seven percent of college students drop out as a result of this stress.

Seven experts, representing private industry, nonprofits and academia, each briefly described different facets of the problem. Among the presenters was Amanda Vardi (FCLC ‘10), who developed a one-hour workshop in “healthy financial habits for students” in September 2009 in collaboration with Takooshian and Economics Professor Michael Buckley. Based on the workshop, Psi Chi, the international honor society in psychology, awarded Vardi a grant to design a model workshop to circulate to honors students at the Society’s 1,100 U.S. campuses. The workshop includes a 25-minute DVD that includes information on aspects of credit and financial literacy for students.

“Our Fordham research finds too many U.S. students suffer alone with the problem of debt while trying to succeed in school,” said Takooshian. “There is now help available to our students in the CARD Act, our free Fordham DVD and workshop, and other new resources.”

Additional public workshops on these issues will be conducted by Carol O’Rourke at Fordham School of Law’s Center for Debtor Education.

Curtis Sliwa and Harold Takooshian, Ph.D. Photo by Gina Vergel

“This was an organization that had a difficult time getting a word in edgewise,” said Curtis Sliwa, the group’s founder and talk show host on New York’s WABC radio. “Here we are, 30 years later, with chapters in 136 cities in 13 countries.”

Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels on Feb. 13, 1979, when, as manager of a McDonald’s on East Fordham Road near Webster Avenue, he tired of the rampant crime that had overtaken the Bronx.

“The area was the worst example of how people had lost their sentimentality,” he said. “People looked the other way when crimes happened on the arteries and veins of New York—the subways—because they just wanted to get home alive. It was survival of the fittest.”

The city’s police force and administration didn’t welcome the original 13 members, who patrolled the streets wearing red berets, a symbol that has become synonymous with the Guardian Angels worldwide. In fact, then-Mayor Ed Koch called them vigilantes.

But Fordham University students and staff, like many New York residents who were sick of crime-filled streets and subways, expressed admiration for the unarmed patrol.

“Fordham was always a safe haven for us,” Sliwa said.

Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., professor of psychology, recalled taking his social psychology students into the streets in the 1980s, to survey the public about the Guardian Angels.

“With the exception of two people who weren’t from the area and didn’t have a clue who the Angels were, there was an overwhelmingly positive response,” he said.

Takooshian, one of the featured speakers at the event, discussed pro-social behavior and why the Guardian Angels were able to turn at-risk youths into community leaders.

“Whether they were teenagers that hung out on the streets or not, those who eventually became Angels had role models in one way or another,” he said.

Takooshian and his students aren’t the only link between Fordham and the Guardian Angels. In 1981, Fordham Law School’s Urban Law Journal published a pioneering article on the cost-effectiveness of Angels’ unusual work.

Finally, the Angels staged World Congresses at Fordham in 1998 and 2004, both of which were attended by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.