In their first home game of the season, the undefeated Rams did not disappoint, rallying for 21 fourth-quarter points to secure a thrilling 48-45 victory before an enthusiastic crowd on Jack Coffey Field.

“Each and every visit is better than the one before,” said Julie (D’Attilio) Gautam, who has been coming back to campus since she earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Fordham in 1989. “I think it looks beautiful, and I’m really excited for the next phase—the new president and bringing all of this incredible investment to building together without losing the spirit and history.”

Gautam’s son, Brij, is now a junior in the Gabelli School of Business, and on Saturday, she arrived early with her husband, Manish, and their daughter, Jaya, to take part in a campus tour led by Patricia Peek, Ph.D., FCRH ’90, GSAS ’92, ’07, dean of undergraduate admission.

“I’m a senior in high school right now, but I’ve been coming to Homecoming my whole life, so I feel like I know the school, and I love the school, so I’m very excited to apply,” Jaya said after the tour, which was co-led by Ben Reilly, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior.

Near the residence halls, Peek and Reilly joked that students might be sleeping in a bit after the semiformal President’s Ball, which kicked off at 9 p.m. on Friday and didn’t end until 1 in the morning. About 4,000 undergraduates from the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses—the most to date—enjoyed dancing and refreshments under the tents on Edwards Parade, many getting their first chance to meet Fordham’s new president.

Meanwhile, recent graduates kicked off Homecoming weekend downtown with the Young Alumni Yacht Cruise on Friday night. The annual event, open this year to graduates from the classes of 2012 through 2022, drew about 800 alumni and friends. Together, they cruised around lower Manhattan while enjoying cocktails, dancing, and a buffet dinner.

And They’re Off

By 9 a.m. on Saturday, a few dozen members of the Fordham community had taken their marks near the McShane Campus Center for the 11th annual 5K Ram Run. Runners completed three loops around campus before finishing by the Victory Bell in front of the historic Rose Hill Gymnasium.

Michael Parrinello, a junior studying finance, ran with his sister, Lauren, for the second year in a row, as their parents, Michael and Theresa, cheered them on from sidelines. “It’s a fun time,” Michael Sr. said. “They look forward to the race, and we’re looking forward to the football game.”

Shannon Baurkot, a senior studying applied mathematics, was fired up to join alumni in the race. After her first lap, she leaped into the air to high-five Ramses, the Fordham mascot, before continuing down Constitution Row toward the University Church.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “Honestly, it’s just such a great way to start Homecoming; I couldn’t have asked for a better way.”

Welcoming a New President

After the Ram Run and campus tour, alumni and guests gathered in the Great Hall of the McShane Campus Center, where President Tania Tetlow shared some words of welcome in a fireside-style chat with Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) Advisory Board.

The discussion came a few days after Tetlow’s first State of the University address, where she emphasized the power of the University as a “force multiplier” and an “agent of change.”

“When you look at the trajectory of schools, the ones where alumni really invest—and by that I mean in all of the ways that you do—those are the ones that lean forward,” Tetlow told the Homecoming audience. “So, the fact that Fordham alumni are so engaged, that they want to pay forward the opportunity they received here, that they care so much about this place, that’s a big part of why we are where we are today.”

Field Full of Memories

After the session, Tetlow headed to Edwards Parade to greet alumni, students, families, and friends as they entered the Homecoming tents. More than 2,000 people enjoyed boxed lunches, drinks, games, music, and even some shopping for Fordham-themed jewelry and swag while catching up with each other and learning about upcoming alumni events and one of the University’s newest alumni affinity groups.

As he hung out in the loyal donor tent, Richard Calabrese, FCRH ’72, recalled his days playing quarterback on an intramural football team. “On this very field,” he said, “there are good memories. It was fun. Our fall afternoons were great.”

Homecoming fell on roughly the same date that Calabrese and his wife, Angela, a 1972 College of New Rochelle graduate, met at an on-campus party more than five decades ago. They come to Homecoming every few years from their Florida home. “Today is probably going to be the best experience we’ve ever had here—based on the people we’re with, and the weather,” he said.

He and Angela were visiting with their friends Jacqueline and Fred Schwanwede, both members of the Class of 1972 who were on the sailing team as students.

Asked about his best Fordham memory, Fred pointed to Jacqueline and said just two words: “meeting her.”

Across the grass, in the family tent, Michelle Acosta, FCRH ’98, and her husband, Mark, sat with their 6-year-old daughter, Valentina, who’d availed herself of the face painting station. The couple got married at the University Church in 2010, and Michelle, a philosophy major who has since gone on to practice law on Long Island, had made it a point to come to just about every Homecoming. After a three-year hiatus, she said it was great to be back.

“It truly feels like coming home. There’s the familiar sights, the familiar energy, and there are also new things I haven’t had a chance to check out since the last timeI was here,” she said.

“Valentina has seen all the pictures of our wedding and we like to take her back there, too, to see the church where we got married. I think she definitely can participate more and she’ll have more of a memory. The last time we went to the football game, she was so little, and she was afraid of the Ram. I don’t think that’ll happen this year,” she said laughing.

Harnessing the Spirit of Homecoming to Spread Awareness

Elsewhere, in the main tent, J. Iris Kim, GABELLI ’07, and Mark Son, LAW ’10, helmed a table where they spoke with alumni and students about the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) alumni chapter, established in 2020 by Christopher P. Lee, FCRH ’71, LAW ’79, amid rising incidents of anti-Asian aggression across New York City and the country.

It’s been a little challenging for them to connect with alumni in person during the pandemic, which is why Kim and Son, two of the group’s co-leaders, decided to set up a table at this year’s Homecoming.

“We want to promote AAPI issues and just awareness of our presence on campus,” Kim said. “We’re relatively new, so we’re just really trying to get our name out there. We’re also hoping to connect with some of the student groups on campus, so we can have that connection with the students who will become alums.”

Son said that they’ve been advocating and supporting work taking place at the University toward creating an Asian American studies program. With support from two University grants—an Arts & Sciences Deans’ Challenge Grant and a Teaching Race Across the Curriculum Grant from the chief diversity officer—a group of Fordham professors is currently developing a curriculum for a minor in the subject.

“May is AAPI Heritage Month, so we’ve been celebrating every year,” said Son, who noted that the group is also working to add programming and partnerships, including with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Fordham Law School’s Center on Asian Americans and the Law. The goal of all this work, he said, is to build Fordham pride and “get more people to come out and support these issues.”

Alumni Bookworms Are Back for Round Two

Other attendees stopped by a table piled high with copies of The Complicities, the new novel from Stacey D’Erasmo, associate professor of English at Fordham University. Chosen for the latest Forever Fordham Alumni Book Club, The Complicities tells the story of Suzanne Flaherty, a woman attempting to rebuild her life after her now ex-husband is found guilty of financial crimes and sentenced to prison.

Maureen Corrigan-Connell, GRE ’94, ’95, a Yonkers-based Montessori teacher, said she’s looking forward to reading D’Erasmo’s other books after she finishes The Complicities. She decided to read the novel, and join the alumni book club, in memory of her husband, John, a 1974 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill who was an avid reader.

She’s also enjoying the break from education books.

“When the school year is in, it’s education books and all things Montessori, so I must say that when I do pick up a book I like a certain amount of romance, fiction, and history that dates to a place that I haven’t been.”

Tales from the Tailgate

In the parking lot, Blaine and Missy Lavergne were enjoying their first time tailgating on the Rose Hill campus. The couple, natives of Lafayette, Louisiana, were there to support their daughter Maggie, a first-year Fordham College at Lincoln Center student and a member of the cheerleading squad.

The Lavergnes are big Louisiana State University fans, but for the occasion, they were dressed to the hilt in maroon. Both sported custom-made sneakers with the Fordham logo that one of their other daughters had made for the occasion, and Blaine had fashioned a Fordham flag into a cape. Their spread was merely a test run for Family Weekend on October 1, when they plan to return with the whole family to cheer on Fordham football against Georgetown.

“Maggie interviewed at all of these out-of-state schools, and she just fell in love with Fordham,” Blaine said. “As a Catholic dad, it just fired me up that she would choose a Catholic university. She’s in the best of both worlds: She’s here at a traditional campus, and she gets the beauty of New York and Broadway in Manhattan. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

A few spots away, Lea O’Rourke, a senior at the Gabelli School of Business, was playing cornhole and enjoying coffee and bagels with friends and her parents, Barbara and Kevin. Barbara’s father, Marc Angelillo Jr., FCLC ‘50, played football when he was an undergraduate, and she has fond memories of visiting Rose Hill as a child.

“We grew up coming to the alumni weekends, where he would reconnect with all of his friends,” she said. “My father would drag all six children here and we would enjoy the day.”

For Leah, this year’s Homecoming felt like a long time coming. She attended her first in 2019, but she didn’t know many people at the time, and for the past two years, the pandemic made it challenging to really enjoy the day.

“I am ready for the first of the last tailgates. They are so well put together by my mom, and I’m just so excited. It’s crazy that that was my freshman year,” she said remembering 2019, “and now we’re here.”

Rams Remain Undefeated

At 1 p.m., fans made their way to Jack Coffey Field to watch the then 2-0 Rams take on the University at Albany Great Danes. The Rams jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but they soon fell behind in what became a back-and-forth contest.

Staring at an 11-point deficit with 15 minutes to go, senior quarterback Tim DeMorat was unfazed. He led his team to a 21-point fourth quarter and a thrilling 48-45 victory. The win brought the Rams to 3-0 on the season—the team’s best start since 2013, when Fordham advanced to the second round of the FCS playoffs and finished the year ranked No. 10 in the country.

John J. Pettenati, FCRH ’81, took in the action on the field from the roof of one of the trailers reserved for members of the Maroon Club. A history major who would go on to work in the banking industry, he’s been a season ticket holder since his days as an undergraduate.

“We are a football school,” he said. “And it’s great, bringing alumni and students together in the fall. To me, this is the easiest thing to do. I mean, it’s not terribly expensive, it’s entertaining, I’m supporting my college, and I’m outside. Those are all wonderful things.”

Whether you’re thinking of visiting classic attractions in Manhattan or exploring a new borough this holiday season, we’ve got you covered.

Please note: All events and activities here are outdoors or virtual. Those that are outdoors are subject to COVID-19 rules and changes. Please take the proper precautions, follow city and state guidelines, and visit the sites’ individual websites to get more information.

Manhattan

The Winter Village at Bryant Park
Lace up your skates and enjoy some free ice skating at Bryant Park’s 17,000-square-foot outdoor rink, just a few blocks from Grand Central. Surrounding the rink are more than 170 shops and food stands where you can grab local gifts or try something new to eat.

Explore Rockefeller Center
There’s nothing that screams the holiday season more than the legendary tree at Rockefeller Center. This year’s 79-foot-tall Norway spruce will be up and lit until Jan. 16, so there’s plenty of time to stop by and grab a photo or two. Visitors can also reserve time to skate at the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink for $20 and up, or head up to the Top of the Rock and take in 360-degree outdoor views of the city, with tickets starting at $34.

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Go behind the scenes of The Nutcracker thanks to a new virtual exhibition from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “Winter Wonderland: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” aims to take viewers through the early years of the classic holiday ballet’s life.

Bronx

New York Botanical Garden: GLOW
Just across the street from the Rose Hill campus, the New York Botanical Garden has an outdoor exhibit called GLOW, a 1.5 mile outdoor illuminated light spectacle and a holiday night market holiday featuring diverse vendors and booths. Tickets for GLOW are $35 for adults and $20 for children under 12.

Bronx Zoo: Holiday Light Show
An immersive light display, more than 260 lanterns of animals and plants, and animated light shows, are just a few of the features of the Holiday Light Show at the Bronx Zoo. Ice carving demonstrations and competitions, a holiday train, wildlife theater, and seasonal treats are also available. Tickets are $39.95 for adults, $34.95 for seniors, and $24.95 for children 3-12.

“Chill Out” at Wave Hill
Enjoy the outdoors at Wave Hill, a public garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades in the Bronx that aims to “connect people to the natural world in meaningful and lasting ways through myriad programs.” During “Chill Out,” visitors are encouraged to explore the winter gardens with the help of expert naturalists, gardeners and wellness guides. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students.

Brooklyn

Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tour
Walk around the Dyker Heights, Brooklyn neighborhood to see some of the most extravagant decorations in the city. The breathtaking displays feature ground to roof lights, life-size Santas, and Christmas carols coming from the houses. They can be seen from 11th to 13th Avenues (also known as Dyker Heights Blvd) from 83rd to 86th St in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Lightscape
Explore more than 1 million illuminated lights along an enchanting trail that also features a holiday soundtrack. Displays include the Winter Cathedral Tunnel, Fire Garden, and Sea of Light. There will also be displays from local artists, such as a series of poems by author Jacqueline Woodson. Tickets are $34 for adults and $18 for children 3-12.

Queens

Queens County Farm Museum: Illuminate the Farm
More than 1,000 lights in hand-crafted lanterns have taken over the Queens Farm as a part of the NYC Winter Lantern Festival. About six acres of the historic farmland are now a field of illuminated farm animals, vegetables, flowers, holiday delights, and more. Tickets are $24.99 for adults and $16.99 for children 3-12. From Dec. 24 to Jan 2, adult tickets are $29.99.

Queens Botanical Garden
Step outside and take in an outdoor exhibit by artists from Kew Gardens called “Here, There, and Everywhere.” The exhibit was “was born of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic stress and political division it engendered,” and aims to remind visitors of the “beauty of the world, its strangeness and its transience, and employ the power of imagination.”

Staten Island

Winter Lanterns at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden
As part of the NYC Winter Lantern Festival, seven acres of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden will be lit up with 27 LED holiday installations. Along with the lights display, a variety of holiday vendors will be on hand to create a festive experience. Admission is free.

“The history of botany, and the study of plants, transpires in Latin,” Matthew McGowan, Ph.D., an associate professor of classics at Fordham, told the tour group, explaining how his own area of expertise led to his interest in botany.

It was the latest of many field trips McGowan has organized over the years to show where Latin persists in the modern world. He has led trips to the Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in addition to the botanical garden, which houses nearly 8 million samples of plant species—the world’s second-largest collection—across the street from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus.

McGowan first connected with the garden and its experts in 2007; two of them co-led the tour. “I recognized when I arrived at Fordham 13 years ago that botany and the science of botany was the only discipline that I could determine where a knowledge of Latin and publishing in Latin was absolutely necessary,” he said at the outset of the tour, speaking to approximately 40 alumni and students in front of the garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

The tour began with stories of innovators from ages past. Its first stop was the library’s Rare Books Room, with its centuries-old copies of works by naturalists including Carl Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swiss physician and horticulturalist known as the father of modern taxonomy.

“He wasn’t the first to come up with a system for organizing the plant world, but his was the first to stick, and be universally accepted,” said Stephen Sinon, the William B. O’Connor Curator of Special Collections, Research and Archives at the botanical garden. Linnaeus synthesized and collated existing names, and “Latin was the basis of his system,” Sinon said. “As a dead language, it could be universally accepted, and wouldn’t change as a living language would.”

Linnaeus’ two-word designations replaced wordier names, incorporating descriptions of the species that could run to more than a dozen words, said Robbin Moran, Ph.D., the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany at the botanical garden. “Imagine trying to utter that every time you wanted to refer to a species,” Moran said.

For example, he said, the formal name of the agave plant was Agave foliis spinoso-dentatis mucronatisque (“Agave with leaves spinose-dentate and with a sharp-pointed tip”). Linnaeus provided an alternative for these long names—in this case, simply Agave americana.

McGowan noted that some plant names also contain words from other languages, including Greek and English, that have been “Latinized” for the sake of consistency.

A Dash of Controversy

Linnaeus developed his classification system in Species Plantarum—an original copy of which the alumni and students perused in the Rare Books Room—and an earlier work, Systema Naturae, with its sexual classification system that proved controversial, Moran said. Linnaeus based his classification on flowers, which he likened to a marriage: the flower’s pollen-producing stamens were the husbands and seed- and fruit-producing pistils were the wives. If a plant had, say, one pistil and six stamens, Linnaeus described it as having “six husbands and one wife in the marriage,” Moran said. Many of Linnaeus’ colleagues thought this scandalous, leading to some of his books being banned in parts of Europe, Moran said.

After perusing the rare books and their detailed, ornate illustrations of plants, the group moved to the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium. Moran showed plant specimens and described their two-word names that incorporate genus and species, like Hirtella brachystachya, a South American plant whose short stem is reflected in its name, McGowan said.

Moran pointed out that when new species of plants were named, they were often accompanied by lengthier descriptions, also written in Latin. He noted that the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants no longer requires Latin for formal descriptions of new species. English has been allowed since 2012, in part to make species identification more efficient and stay ahead of extinction threats.

Turning the Page on Latin

Botanists still need to know Latin for the sake of reading older literature and composing names for new species, Moran said. McGowan said the move away from Latin descriptions “was probably inevitable, and need not be the cause for excessive lament.”

“What was originally meant to universalize the science of botany and simplify communication across the globe had in fact become a hindrance to actual botanists practicing their art in the face of other more pressing threats, like the disappearance of plant species due to climate change and deforestation,” he said.

“Latin is obviously still crucial for a genuine knowledge of botanical history and, more generally, of the history of science,” he said.

One attendee, Susan Snyder, FCRH ’86, a retired teacher, was amazed to learn about the medicinal use of plants in centuries past. “It made me worry, too … that we’re going to lose a lot of plants that could be medicines,” she said.

Another alumna, Mary Guardiani, UGE ’62, GSE ’92, also enjoyed the deep and wide-ranging presentation: “It was thoroughly enjoyable, because the presenters knew the topic intimately.”

The tour of the New York Botanical Garden was one of many cultural events regularly held in the New York area and around the country by Fordham’s Office of Alumni Relations. Upcoming events include museum tours, concerts, and theater performances, and more.

When Butcher takes her seat among her fellow doctoral candidates on Keating Terrace at commencement, it will be the conclusion of long journey—one that veered from otter conservation in Michigan to rooftop pollination in New York City.

And it all happened because of a chance encounter on the other side of the world.

Butcher, a native of Michigan, was in New Zealand for a conference in 2011, presenting research on green roofs she had conducted as part of her master’s degree in conservation biology at Central Michigan University. Fordham associate biology professor J. Alan Clark, Ph.D., who was there to study penguins at the time, told her about Fordham’s program at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Butcher was skeptical about leaving her family but booked a flight to New York anyway.

“I came out to visit and loved it. I loved the city. I loved the colorfulness of the Bronx. I really loved the Calder Center,” she said.

Her dissertation on pollen dispersal in diverse urban habitats looks at the ways that tomatoes and amaranths reproduce even when they’re stuck on the equivalent of urban islands.

Within four sites—the green roofs on the Rose Hill campus parking garage and the Javits Center, and ground sites at the Queens Zoo and Fordham’s Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, New York—Butcher tracked the movement of pollen by identifying unique molecular markers in the parent plants, and tracking these markers in the seeds.

“I matched the seeds to their mom. I matched them to their dad. And then I could tell where mom was and where dad was, and then calculate the distance. It’s just like Maury Povich,” she said, laughing.

Butcher said there is a dearth of research on pollen dispersal in roof habitats.

“Pollen dispersal is the most important component of plant gene flow. Gene flow is essential because it can maintain or increase genetic diversity within a population and thus increase a population’s capacity to adapt, and in an urban environment, it’s really important because humans are constantly changing things,” she said.

Butcher said she’ll miss the Calder Center, where she briefly resided.

“Other biological field stations may be bigger and better funded, but Calder has a history that’s so interesting,” she said of the field station—a former estate anchored by a 13,000-square-foot, 27-room stone mansion built in the early 1900s.

Butcher, who served as the Biology Graduate Student Association president for several years and had a Clare Boothe Luce fellowship for two years, also taught at the New York Botanical Garden’s Everett Children’s Adventure Garden during her time at Fordham.

That experience revealed to her a passion for teaching science informally, and going forward, she’s exploring a wide array of potential positions, including teaching at a university.

“I’m casting my net really wide for a job now. I think I’ll know what I want to do when I see it.”

At the Louis Calder Center, scientists explore ecological mysteries and study society’s impact on the natural world.

To the casual observer, Fordham’s Louis Calder Center might seem to be just another quiet tract of Hudson River Valley forest. But for natural scientists, it abounds with opportunity. Explore the 113-acre biological field station in Armonk, New York, and you’ll find a bounty of ecosystems and animals, from the four-legged to the microscopic. At the heart of the preserve is a 10-acre temperate lake teeming with a diversity of aquatic life. Go high enough and, way off in the distance, you can see another big player in the preserve’s ecology: New York City, which begins only 16 miles away.

Its proximity has never been more relevant. “Humans and our cities are the most dominant forces of contemporary evolution now,” says Jason Munshi-South, Ph.D., a Calder-based biology professor who recently co-authored a paper in the journal Science on how species are evolving within cities. Other scientists at Calder study invasive species that arrive via big-city commerce. And they tackle many other mysteries: why some animals survive new threats while others don’t, how nutrients flow beneath the soil, or how insects transmit disease.

The center was born 50 years ago when the land was given to Fordham by the Louis Calder Foundation, named for the paper and pulp magnate who maintained a summer home on the property. Today, that home is Calder Hall, one of several buildings in which students and professors analyze DNA samples, inspect plant and animal specimens, hold classes, and generate knowledge.

Among many other public services, the Calder Center supports the nation’s longest-running study of ticks and Lyme disease, and its scientists work to illuminate society’s impact on nature at a time of growing concern about biodiversity and climate change.

It is also a crucial training ground: “The most important thing we do here is make scientists,” says Thomas Daniels, Ph.D., an expert in tick- and mosquito-borne diseases who has served as the center’s director since 2014.

On a sparkling autumn day late last October, FORDHAM magazine tagged along as undergraduates, graduate students, professors, and visiting scientists went about their work—gently probing, collecting samples, and explaining the science behind their work and its potential impact.

Evolution in the Big City

In recent years, Fordham biologist Jason Munshi-South, Ph.D., and his team of graduate and undergraduate students have become known for their studies of urban wildlife and pest species, most notably rats.

“The initial idea was to understand what a New York City rat is, from all ecological and evolutionary angles,” he says of one project, which grew to a global scale and has public health implications. “We’re using DNA to understand how they move around the city and how they’re related to other rat populations.”

In a first-floor lab in Calder Hall, doctoral student Carol Henger uses similar methods to study coyotes, animals that only recently moved into the city for the first time, Munshi-South says. She’s looking at DNA markers from coyote scat collected in Pelham Bay Park and elsewhere to infer how individual coyotes are related, what they’re eating, and how they’re dispersing.

Meanwhile, Nicole Fusco, another doctoral student in Munshi-South’s lab, sequences DNA to study gene flow among populations of salamanders.

Biodiversity and Climate Change

In the Calder Center’s Lord & Burnham greenhouse, constructed on the property nearly a century ago, doctoral student Stephen Kutos has been growing pairs of potted trees and studying how they pass water and nutrients back and forth via subsoil networks of fungus.

“Tree stumps have been found that are still alive hundreds of years after the tree was cut down, quite possibly because surrounding trees send them nutrients,” he says. With further study, he adds, it may be possible to restore the wild population of one type of tree he’s growing, the American chestnut, which was eradicated from the wild 100 years ago by blight.

Restoring the tree could help combat climate change, scientists believe, because the American chestnut can absorb and store carbon quickly.

In an adjacent greenhouse, several researchers work on an evolutionary study initiated by Fordham biologist Steven Franks, Ph.D., and focused on Brassica rapa (field mustard). As Franks demonstrated in an earlier study, the annual plant evolved earlier flowering within just five years to cope with drought conditions in California.

The Mystery of the Red-Backed Salamander’s Survival

Late in the morning, undergrads Dan Khieninson and Erin Carter and doctoral student Elle Barnes enter Calder forest in search of red-backed salamanders.

“You can find them anywhere in the forest as long as the soil’s moist,” Barnes says before the group navigates a steep decline to the forest floor.

She indicates several flat, weathered pieces of wood she’s left behind. “You’re more likely to find them under here.” The three researchers crouch down and soon locate several specimens.

They’re trying to discover why red-backed salamanders are not affected by the chytrid fungus that is devastating other amphibian populations.

“It’s not enough to just study the ones that are going extinct,” Barnes says. “There are solutions in the ones that will survive. What do they have that other amphibians are lacking?”

The answer lies in their microbiome, Barnes says. She, Carter, and Khieninson use cotton swabs on the salamanders’ bodies to collect samples of microorganisms that they can test against chytrid fungus in the lab. The impact of their research could extend beyond conservation biology, Barnes says: “The discoveries we make about disease and microbiomes can be applied to multiple systems, including humans’.”

A Closer Look at a Ubiquitious, Ecologically Valuable Species

Michael Kausch, a doctoral student in aquatic ecology, rows a boat out on Calder Lake to take some water samples he can later test for cyanobacteria at the lakefront McCarthy Laboratories. Meanwhile, inside the lab, his fellow doctoral student Stephen Gottschalk is working with their Fordham supervisor, John Wehr, Ph.D. Gottschalk is studying green algae in the Characeae family.

“They’re an important food source for birds, a habitat for insects, and they support fisheries,” he says.

So far Gottschalk has collected samples in nine U.S. states, and he’s been working at the New York Botanical Garden under the supervision of Kenneth Karol, Ph.D., to examine his samples on a molecular level.

He’s finding that what scientists once thought were just subtle differences among green algae are in fact ecologically important distinctions. “They’re designated as one species,” Gottschalk says, “but what it looks like to me so far is these are very regionally distinct.”

Mosquitoes, Ticks, and the Pathogens They Carry

Insect-borne diseases are a big part of the research focus at Routh House, the vector ecology lab at the Calder Center that’s jointly run by Fordham and the New York state health department. Inside the lab, scientists study samples of various species, such as the aggressive and potentially disease-carrying Asian tiger mosquito. Outside, they collect specimens and conduct surveillance projects.

“We set up mosquito traps all around the lower Hudson Valley,” says Marly Katz, a state employee and Fordham doctoral student. “All the mosquitoes end up here, where I identify them, and then we send a bunch [to the state health department]for disease testing.” She and her colleagues are also collaborating with Columbia University scientists to “map the Asian tiger mosquito,” she says, and determine if changes in climate are affecting its migration patterns.

While Katz checks a mosquito trap, research technician Richard Rizzitello collects ticks by dragging a white cloth across the ground and then pulling them off with forceps (he uses a lint roller to collect any larvae).

One Calder scientist, Nicholas Piedmonte, displays egg-to-adult samples of the blacklegged tick, which can carry the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.

“These are great for education and outreach,” he says, particularly in central New York, “where ticks are kind of a new problem.”

View a timeline of the Calder Center’s history. And watch a July 2017 video celebrating the center’s recent golden anniversary.

Fordham University and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo has conducted the first known study of bats in an urban area on the East Coast. The study provides evidence of both breeding and migration patterns of several species through the area.

“Bats in the Bronx: Acoustic Monitoring of Bats in New York City,”  published in the journal Urban Naturalist, provides evidence of bat activity in the city and documents the migratory movement of Eastern Red Bats and Silver-Haired Bats through the Bronx in particular.

J. Alan Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences and one of the authors of the study, said the biggest surprise was the presence of three bats— Lasiurus borealis (Eastern Red Bat), L. cinereus (Hoary Bat), and Lasionycteris noctivagans (Silver-Haired Bat), during the winter months—a time when it was assumed they’d have migrated away from the area or begun hibernating.

“I was told by some bat experts there would be no winter bat activity, and that I’d be foolish for looking,” he said. “We had no idea how much we’d learn about bats here in the Bronx, so the results are both surprising and exciting.”

To identify bat species and activity levels, the Fordham/WCS team acoustically monitored bats at the Bronx Zoo, Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, the New York Botanical Garden and in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx.

Bat activity was recorded using both acoustic-recording devices on building rooftops and with handheld ultrasonic recording units. Using a software program called Sonobat, the team was able to identify different species by the echolocation calls that the bats produce in flight in order to navigate and locate their prey.

The initial study began in May 2012 and identified the presence of five out of a possible nine species found in New York State: Eptesicus fuscus (Big Brown Bat), Lasiurus borealis (Eastern Red Bat), L. cinereus (Hoary Bat), Lasionycteris noctivagans (Silver-Haired Bat), and Perimyotis subflavus (Tri-Colored Bat).

Of the five species detected, the most-represented was Eastern Red Bats. A July increase of its activity, followed by an August peak and sharp decline in September, suggests migratory movement through New York City, as the pattern is consistent with acoustic surveys collected in the Midwest and East Coast. In addition, an increase in Silver-Haired Bat activity occurred in late October—consistent with the timing of coastal migratory movements for this species.

The initial study, published in June 2016 and still ongoing at the Bronx Zoo, hopes to monitor year-round bat activity in the park and to identify any changes in patterns of call activity that could occur as a result of environmental factors.

Additionally, the study has been expanded to include acoustic bat surveying at the three other WCS parks—Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo and Prospect Park Zoo—using the same monitoring methods. Initial results from the ongoing surveys reveal that the same five species occur in these three boroughs as well, although the call compositions are represented by different species at each park.

Clark has previously documented the positive effects of green roofs on birds in New York; and it’s clear that what is true for fowl is true for bats as well.

Study co-authors also included Fordham’s Kaitlyn L. Parkins, GSAS ‘15 and Michelle Mathios, FCRH, ‘13,and Colleen McCann, Ph.D., curator of mammals at the Bronx Zoo.

Four members of the consortium—Fordham, The New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx Zoo, and Montefiore Health System—have teamed up for a series of programs and events dedicated to educating others about the concept of a “healthy planet, healthy people.”

The first event will be an April 12 lecture at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, “Celebrating the Legacy of Jane Jacobs: A Conversation with Greg Lindsay.” Jacobs was responsible for leading the successful opposition to the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have run along Canal Street. The University will also host talks by science writer Carl Zimmer and Eric W. Sanderson, landscape ecologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo. Zimmer speaks on April 21 at the Flom Auditorium in the William D. Walsh Family Library. Sanderson speaks on April 26 in the same venue.

Sanderson’s lecture on April 26 is an example of the collaboration between the zoo, which offers complimentary general admission to all NYC undergraduate college student, and Fordham.

The zoo will host a three-day long Earth Fair on April 22, which will include interactive exhibits such as a Carbon Footprint app that lets visitors figure out their own carbon footprint, a discussion about the amazing conservation success story of the rebound of the wild population of white rhinos, and a staging of Reusable the Musical.

John Calvelli, executive vice president of Public Affairs for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said that the partnership has inspired the zoo to consider new ways to reach out to the Bronx community. One initiative he said they’re exploring is providing free passes during the month to children who get their checkups with their doctors at Montefiore.

“By coordinating efforts and planning activities together, we strengthen the links between these vital neighborhood institutions and new ideas are born through collaboration,” he said.

The weekend of April 22 will see a flurry of activity at Montefiore and at the New York Botanical Garden as well. The hospital will host an Earth Day celebration on April 21, and on April 22, the Garden will host tours, a composting bin-making workshop and a screening of the 2013 documentary Seeds of Time, which follows an agriculturalist who is building a biological archive to maintain crop diversity.

For more information, visit the Bronx Science Consortium event page.

The discussion, which takes places from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Mertz Library Reading Room, is being presented by the garden’s Humanities Institute, which was established in the spring of 2014 as a way to bridge the divide between the arts and sciences, and bring together scholarship relating to nature, landscape, and the built environment.

It will feature:

J. Alan Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of conservation biology, who will detail how he uses radar, acoustic recordings, and flight tunnels to explore bird migration through urban landscapes in a talk titled, “Bird Migration Through Urban Landscapes;”

Sheila Foster, Albert A. Walsh Professor of Law and Faculty, and co-director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham School of Law, who will explore the urban commons framework as a concept for developing cities that are both revitalized and inclusive in a talk titled “The City as a Common Good;” and

Roger Panetta, visiting professor of history, who will detail how the renewal of the Brooklyn waterfront has caught the attention of politicians, planners and the public here and abroad, and drawn a remarkable concentration of civic energy to the water’s edge, in a talk titled “Whose Waterfront?”

Vanessa Bezemer Sellers, humanities research program coordinator at the NYGB, said the topic is important because the natural environment of cities is being damaged in a myriad of ways in the service of economic interests.

“If a neighboring building is demolished, and it becomes a temporary green spot or a community garden, it’s nilly-willy just taken away for development. Money is always still number one, and that becomes a very serious issue because there’s simply too little space and too much stress [on]human dignity,” she said.

This is the first time a Fordham contingent will speak at the institute. The University and the NYBG pledged to work together more closely in 2012, when both joined the Bronx Science Consortium.

Sellers said she hoped the colloquium, which will consist of panelists speaking for 10 minutes followed by 90 minutes of open discussion, might inspire Rose Hill campus-based students to cross Southern Boulevard more often.

“I see students [jog]around the perimeter here. I thought well, if they run here, it would be nice to have them come on a regular basis and build a rapport with the professors, so that our green environment becomes a regular part of the program of incoming students,” she said.

To RSVP for the colloquium, visit the Humanities Institute’s event page.

What do you see as the biggest problems for women in the workplace?
I’m very big on the language that we use. Stop with the sorry! Men don’t say sorry. Women apologize all the time without doing anything wrong. Get the word out of your vocabulary. And don’t raise your hand. I’ve seen this many times, and I’ve mentored many women. Men talk over women. And women have to do more. I’m speaking in broad-brush terms, I know that. But you have to stand up for yourself. Don’t worry about being nice. You’re not gonna shout or curse. But do demand respect. Because if you don’t demand it, it will not come back to you.

The other thing is, women don’t ask. You get 100 percent of nothing if you don’t ask. If you ask, you get 50 percent; you increase your chances. With the Women inPower program, they were putting together an advisory board and I wasn’t asked. So what? I went and asked. Twice. And now I’m on an advisory board whose advisers include the co-founder of the Malala Foundation and many other powerful and wonderful women. And I’m contributing to a cause that I am passionate about.

Do you think things are improving for working women?
It’s going to take a hard change, a hard turn in our mindsets, but the turn is already starting. And we just have to keep it moving. All of us fall back at times. I speak from experience. And especially with my cultural background, it’s not in my DNA to do this. But unless you stand up for yourself, nobody is going to stand up for you. We will continue to move forward together. That’s why I always say, you help me, I help you, and we both get stronger. There is room for everybody here. So let’s work with each other, let’s help each other.

Why do you want to help women in the workplace?
I am a big believer in what Madeleine Albright said: “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” Before it was in vogue, before it was fashionable, there were women out there striving to help each other. I want it to be better for the next generation of women, the current generation of women, my generation of women. And I am very passionate about this.

Who are the women who helped you?
There was a woman, bless her soul, named Marge Lovero, who was the director of PR at the [New York] Botanical Garden. She took me under her wing and taught me about public relations. She let me take time off after graduation [from Fordham]and I came back full time. That kind of mentorship and kindness and graciousness and selflessness has stayed with me all these years later. And Susan Thomas of Thomas Associates, who was the first agency boss I ever had who put her employees first. She truly, authentically cared for her staff. What I learned from Susan is what I apply to my own business.

Your book, The Little Book of Big PR, is aimed at small business owners and entrepreneurs. But do you think self-branding is something everyone could find useful?
I wanted to share with other entrepreneurs what they could do [to help build their businesses]. But I do think, especially after the recession, people focused on building their personal brands—how do you make yourself stand out amidst this huge group of people to get to your next goal? Your personal brand will define who you are, define your uniqueness, and give you a consistent statement that will allow you to communicate who you are effectively. The elevator pitch is for a company. Apply the same principle but talk about yourself.

How has public relations changed since you first entered the industry?
At the time, public relations was considered the ugly dog that you did not want to be in your home. It is now a respected discipline that is part of virtually every business communication program. It has become much more strategic and much more nuanced. The tide has turned.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Alexandra Loizzo-Desai.

The Sept. 30 event, held at the Bronx Zoo, was a collaboration of the five-member Bronx Consortium, consisting of the zoo, Fordham, the New York Botanical Garden, Montefiore Medical Center, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

For many of the researchers the event served to update fellow participants on the status of ongoing data collection and results.

Rats!

For Matthew Combs, a graduate student at the Calder Center, the event marked the end of data collection on rat migration in Manhattan.

“We pretty much covered the whole island and finished yesterday,” he said.

Combs’ work was part of a large study headed by Jason Munshi South, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences, one that garnered much press attention over the past year.

The team collected rat DNA from all 41 Manhattan zip codes. Among the many findings was that rats, like their human counterparts, tended to stick around their own neighborhood until it got too crowded, after which they moved on to other locations.

“When it gets too crowded, the animals migrate out to find new habitat with fresher food,” said Combs. “In terms of actionable results, if we can map where the rats migrate from, and stop the populations at that source, then maybe we’ll be a bit more successful at preventing a prolonged infestation.”

Is Acupuncture for the Birds?

Many of the research studies, like Combs’, collected hundreds of samples, whereas others presented a single case study.

Jessica Chin, of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at the Bronx Zoo, presented a case study of a 15-year-old parrot whose claw hock was swollen and beleaguered by arthritis. After trying a variety of meds for three months, including anti-inflammatory drugs, the parrot showed no signs of progress. The researchers turned to acupuncture instead.

“We had to restrain him, but he was usually chill when we poked him,” she said. “He showed significant improvement in about six weeks. He can now use his hock to grab food and he’s much happier. We believe the acupuncture did increase his quality of life.”

Chin said that the use of acupuncture is limited at the zoo because not all animals are agreeable to being poked. She noted that tigers are not as amenable as ostriches. She said that even the ostrich had to be coaxed into the process.

“We’d have to move with her and ‘Walk-walk-walk—poke! Walk-walk-walk—poke!’ And then do it the same way to get the pins out.”

However, the ostrich also showed improvement, she said.

Taming Lionfish Proteins

Fordham College at Rose Hill Juniors Zachary Mattes and Nina Le clocked more than 500 hours at the lab this past summer studying the genome code and proteins of the venomous lionfish. Paul Smith, PhD, supervised their research.

Mattes explained that the fish, native to the Pacific Ocean, has been introduced into the Atlantic Ocean, particularly in the Caribbean where the population has “skyrocketed.”

“Aside from the ecological impact, it’s an obvious danger to humans,” he said.

The two are using chromatography to isolate the two proteins that cause the neurotoxic effects. They plan to continue research of the protein structure of the venom through crystallography.

“This is only the beginning,” said Le.

Peer-to-Peer; Teen-to-Teen

Alongside the graduates and undergraduate researchers, high school students from Project TRUE, the urban ecology field research program, also presented their findings. Project TRUE pairs Fordham biologists with WCS educators that work together to train teens during the summer in areas that promote interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Valerie Pierre-Louis, a student at the Lycée Français in Manhattan, said that Project TRUE taught her how to communicate science to her peers.

“As teenagers we know how to interact with each other and explain science,” said Pierre-Louis. “Some science words we may have to explain a little more, but after that they understand it.”

There’s also a benefit in meeting other researchers, students said.

“They are like my friends now,” said Moomitu Kashem, of Midwood High School in Brooklyn. “I’ve made so many connections from all these different high schools and I have a new bond with others who like science.”

“Conservation Conversations from the Corner,” a daylong colloquium, brought together speakers from Fordham University, the New York Botanical Garden and the Wildlife Conservation Society. It was the first gathering of its kind for the three institutions, and was planned with four goals in mind:

• Building on common conversation issues;
• Establishing a three-way dialogue to learn more about and support conservation interests, research and goals;
• Providing a stronger foundation for collaboration;
• Beginning to plan strategies as a larger group.

“Each of our institutions has developed and grown to be acknowledged as leaders in our respective fields of education and science,” said Nancy Busch, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, chief research officer and associate vice president of academic affairs.

“With such stature and physical proximity, it’s amazing to me that it’s taken us more than 100 years to come together for this conversation,” Busch continued. “But events both locally and globally suggest that conversations about conservation are timely.”

Her comments led into the first presentation, delivered by Steven J. Franks, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Fordham, on “Understanding the Genetics of Adaptation to Climate Change.”

For his research, Franks experimented with growing a species of Brassica rapa, or field mustard, in two locations in Southern California. Franks pinpointed the gene responsible for flowering, and accurately predicted that changes in rainfall—such as those expected from global climate change—influence the timing of flowering.

Robert F.C. Naczi, Ph.D., curator of North American botany at the New York Botanical Garden, detailed his ongoing research on a plant that is deadly for flies and ants. In “Conservation Status of the Western Hemisphere Pitcher Plants,” Naczi highlighted developments that threaten the Sarracenia, Darlingtonia and Heliamphora pitcher plants.

The carnivorous plants, which lure insects into elongated tube-shaped leaves filled with water and digestive enzymes, have fallen victim to loss of habitat from development in the Southeast and over harvesting for use in floral arrangements. He also cited “pitcher plant lust,” which causes collectors to harvest the plants from the wild, as an aggravating factor.

“Whether it’s their wonderful colors, intriguing shapes or fascinating natural history, most people are captivated by pitcher plants,” he said.

“We can buy these with ease. It’s not necessary, and yet wild collecting, poaching and collecting of large quantities persists. In fact, there’s a thriving black market of mature grown specimens that go most often to Europe.”