On Jan. 31, 20 Fordham staffers learned some basic skills to help them do just that at the Department of Public Safety’s first self-defense class for employees.

The course, which lasted 90 minutes and took place on the Rose Hill campus, focused on Krav Maga, a martial art originally developed for the Israel Defense Forces. Hebrew for “contact combat,” the technique is derived from a combination of aikido, judo, karate, boxing, and wrestling.

Robert Fitzer, associate vice president in the Department of Public Safety, said that the University decided to offer the course free of charge to employees after receiving enthusiastic feedback from students who took one of the six classes offered to them in the fall.

“We’re not looking to teach people how to become black belts. We’re looking for something quick, to basically empower the person and get them to take an interest in their own safety,” he said.

Right now, Krav Maga is the only technique that is being offered, but Fitzer said the department may offer others as well. He said its appeal is in its emphasis on escape from an attack.

“Whereas some of the other programs are more offensive, this is pure self-defense,” he said.

At the Rose Hill class, McGinn walked participants through basic street safety protocols, such as walking in groups after dark and sticking to well-traveled streets, before turning it over to Avi Abraham, an instructor from the New York Self Defense Academy. Abraham led participants through a round of scenarios they might encounter on the streets, from being grabbed from behind to being cornered with a knife. Participants were paired with one another and took turns as the assailant and the defender.

Those on the defensive were shown how to loosen an attacker’s grip on them by screaming loudly and jerking them to the side. After striking the attackers’ faces using either the side or palm of their hand, participants were instructed to go through the motions of grabbing their attacker by the shoulder and kneeing them repeatedly in the groin.

In addition to explaining why one should never strike an attacker with a closed fist (you can hurt yourself if you don’t land a perfect hit), and why you shouldn’t back up while facing your attacker (you might fall over), Abraham repeatedly stressed that a counter-attack should never stop until the attacker is on the ground and no longer an immediate threat.

Laura Rodriguez received an invitation to the class as a staffer in the Counseling and Psychological Services Center; she’s also a junior at Fordham College at Rose Hill. She volunteered to demonstrate the scenario with a knife.

“A lot of women go around fearful, especially at night. I saw that fear in me and a lot of other women at the course, so it was nice to kind of get together as a community and empower each other through the training.”

Rodriguez said she was encouraged by the knowledge that with the right moves, she could easily use gravity and physics to aid her. Just learning how one could use their own body weight to wriggle free from an attacker who’d grabbed her from behind was helpful, she said.

“If I didn’t know that, I probably would have been stuck in that position, not knowing what to do. But he showed us how to maneuver ourselves in such a way that it was to your own advantage,” she said.

Additional self-defense classes for staff will be offered in the future at the Rose Hill campus. Classes will also be offered at the Lincoln Center campus.

“Carolyn was a vigilant Public Safety officer and also a caring and kind presence at the plaza-level desk at McMahon Hall, where she worked for many years before moving to a security desk at Fordham Law School. She was known for her sense of humor, for showing utmost devotion to her duties, and for the pride in her family that lit up her days,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, in a University-wide email. “They were a source of joy that clearly carried over into her work, and into her dealings with all who knew her at Fordham.” 

Selman, an employee of the University’s security contractor, Allied Universal Security Services, started working at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus in 2003. She spent more than a decade manning the McMahon Hall front desk on the 3 to 11 p.m. shift. In recent years, she worked during the daytime at the Law School’s plaza desk.  

Selman was a good, no-nonsense guard who was also warm and caring and looked out for students, said Robert Dineen, director of public safety. She was also a proud mother and grandmother who loved to share stories about her family, said Jenifer Campbell, Ed.D., dean of students at Lincoln Center. 

“Carolyn was all about family. That really touched my heart because her capacity to love her family segued into her role at Fordham,” said Campbell. “She exuded that same level of care and concern as it related to her family, and I think it transitioned to her love for the Fordham community.” 

Selman was born on July 12, 1955, to Selina Thomas and William Broome in Harlem, the youngest of four daughters. Her mother worked in a restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen called the Tellsa and her father was a painter. Selman graduated from Washington Irving High School in Manhattan in 1974. She studied business at Borough of Manhattan Community College, but she dropped out after she gave birth to her daughter, Ingrid, when she was 20. 

Selman worked two different security jobs to pay for her daughter’s elementary and high school tuition at Saint Ann’s School, a private Catholic school in Brooklyn, and Cathedral High School, a private all-girls Catholic school in Manhattan. On Saturdays, they visited a Woolworths supermarket on 125th Street, where they sat at the counter and ate ice cream together, said Selman’s daughter, Ingrid. 

“I had aunts and cousins, but for the most part, it was just me and my mom. When she went to the beauty salon, I’d come with her. Wherever she went, I came with her,” said Ingrid, who is now an associate director at CollegeBound Initiative. “Even though I was her daughter, I was also her best buddy—her best friend.” 

Selman’s maternal love extended towards her daughter’s friends, Ingrid said, who called her “Mama Selman.” When one friend was kicked out of her home in high school, Selman allowed her to stay at their place for a few months until she found a permanent place to stay. Selman also made sandwiches for her daughter’s high school friend, Melanie, after she tried Selman’s homemade meatloaf sandwich with mayonnaise and relish on raisin bread and fell in love with it. 

“Ever since then, my mother made two lunches: one lunch for me, and one for Melanie, everyday for about a year,” Ingrid said. “She was always thoughtful. She always treated my friends like her own children.” 

She treated the Fordham community with the same kind of love, too. 

“When I would visit her at her security post, people would walk by and say hello to her. A few times, students went on spring break and got her souvenirs and things like that. She enjoyed what she did, and she enjoyed being a mom figure to the students and keeping them on their toes,” said Ingrid, who added that Selman worked only at Fordham since 2003. 

Selman was an outgoing, warm spirited woman with a great sense of humor, but at the end of the day, she was a homebody, said her daughter. She loved peaceful weekends spent at home, listening to slow jam mixtapes from old school artists like Donny Hathaway, Regina Belle, and Diana Ross. She was an excellent cook who took pride in her four-cheese macaroni and cheese and baked ham shank with pineapple slices and brown sugar, and she was a bargain hunter who started shopping for Christmas gifts as early as September. She was a sentimental person who saved special possessions for years, including handwritten cards and a mirror adorned with seashells that her daughter bought her in Mexico. 

She was also thoughtful and attentive to detail when she bought presents for her loved ones. When Ingrid graduated from SUNY New Paltz, Selman bought her a leather briefcase for her first “real world” job. She also loved buying winter coats and toys for her grandchildren. Recently, she put together an Easter basket for her six-year-old granddaughter, Tamiya. 

“My mom didn’t have much, but whatever she had, she would give,” Ingrid said. “She was very generous and thoughtful that way.” 

What most people don’t know about Selman is that she won a free weeklong trip to the Bahamas through a 98.7 KISS FM radio station raffle in the early ’90s, said her daughter.

“She won a trip to the Bahamas, and she took me,” said Ingrid. “She could’ve taken anyone in the world, but she took me.” 

Selman is survived by two older sisters, Patricia Broome and Constance “Connie” Broome; Ingrid and Ingrid’s partner, Terrence Williams; and two grandchildren, 19-year-old Jeremiah Hilaire, a first-year student at Wake Forest University, and six-year-old Tamiya Jolie Williams. 

A funeral service will take place on Saturday, April 17, at 4 p.m., at Owens Funeral Home, located at 216 Malcolm X Blvd., New York, NY, 10027. A wake will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on the same day.

—Chris Gosier contributed reporting.

On Saturday, the University received an urgent email from the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, an association that represents more than 100 independent colleges and universities in New York state. CICU, via the Office of the New York Governor, was requesting that college campuses consider donating personal protective equipment, or PPE, to the state. 

“Within minutes of receiving the requests for goggles, gloves, and other personal protective equipment, Fordham faculty and staff responded generously, outlining what they had available and offering to drive to campus to organize the supplies,” said Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “It was a true team effort⁠ — and a true Fordham effort — in response to the needs of our community.” 

In recent weeks, medical professionals treating COVID-19 patients have been experiencing a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment. Without adequate protection, health care workers risk infecting patients — and themselves. Doctors, nurses, and others have posted online pleas for help, often using the hashtag #GetMePPE.

In responding to the state’s request, Fordham joined a growing group of universities and colleges across the nation that have been donating unused PPE gear normally reserved for lab classes to medical staff in dire need of supplies. 

The day the request came in, Mast and Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, rallied the campus community, and one faculty member became the point person to coordinate with CICU and the state: Robert H. Beer, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry and associate dean for STEM and pre-health education at Fordham College at Rose Hill. 

Beer contacted his STEM colleagues at the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Over the next 24 hours, the chemistry, physics, biology, and natural sciences departments and the Louis Calder Center pooled their supplies in a campus-wide effort coordinated by Beer, campus security guards, lab technicians, graduate students, department chairs, deans, and others. Public Safety and Maureen Keown, the director of University health services, donated supplies as well. By mid-day Sunday, all supplies were safely stored in the FCRH Public Safety Office. 

The campus community was also working on a time crunch. By 8 p.m. on Sunday, the campus would close, in accordance with the New York Office of the Governor’s executive order closing all businesses and nonprofit institutions. 

“I’m just so appreciative of how responsive and quickly everybody acted, and how selfless they were with their time and their desire to help, without thinking of themselves or expecting anything in return,” said Beer. “I hope other people will be inspired to do something.”

In total, the University amassed 70 N95 respirator masks, 350 three-ply surgical face masks, 273 plastic safety glasses, 48 plastic protective face shields, 40 elbow-length rubber gloves, 31,100 exam gloves, 255 white lab coats, 2,000 sterile cotton-tipped applicators, 800 alcohol prep pads, and two bottles of rubbing alcohol, according to John Carroll, associate vice president for public safety. 

On Tuesday morning, members of the New York State Department of Transportation arrived at Rose Hill to pick up the supplies, which will be given to the National Guard for distribution.

“One feels so helpless watching the numbers of sick grow and hearing of the terrible suffering of our fellow New Yorkers,” said Auricchio. “I am proud to be a member of this caring, civic-minded, community.”

STORY UPDATE: On Saturday, March 28, the University donated a second set of PPE supplies to New York state to assist with the health crisis. Approximately 100 coveralls and 800 pairs of disposable gloves were collected from the Louis Calder Center and dropped off at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where they will be given to the National Guard for distribution, said Beer.

The Safety Summit ranked Fordham seventh out of more than 4,000 universities for having increased the safety and security on campus.

“Fordham University increases the safety of its students, faculty, staff, and university community by employing highly trained NYPD officers along with the latest in law enforcement technology and best practices,” said Linda Shaw, director of Safe Campus, a national organization dedicated to improving the safety of U.S. colleges and universities.

Although the citation encompasses only the past year, John Carroll, director of Public Safety, said that most of the office’s improvements took years to develop, particularly the experience of the Fordham security staff and upgrades in technology.

“Our quality personnel and some of the technological innovations, including the creation of our own Fordham Safety App, are the kinds of things that went into the citation,” said Carroll.

Carroll said that many of the personnel were once ranking officers at a variety of state and federal law enforcement agencies—most with an average of 25 years of experience behind them.

“They’ve been in the streets and have seen all sorts of all situations,” he said. “Those skills have now been brought to assist the students, faculty, and staff.”

The new security app was developed specifically for the University. It allows users to be a “tap away” from calling or texting security during an emergency by simply by using an “Urgent Assistance” button. It also includes predefined texts, such as “I am being followed.” The message goes instantly to Public Safety along with the user’s approximate location.

Carroll said that the supervisors in the department continually upgrade their skills by training in fire safety, first aid, and instruction in Title IX. He added that department coordinates with four other private universities to maintain a direct line of contact with the New York City Emergency Management Department, in the event of a wider developing crisis.

“We have someone there to keep us personally informed with accurate information—not rumors,” said Carroll.

The recent initiatives took detailed planning to establish, he said.

“They’re all in place now, but it takes years to get the right people, the right technology, and best practices.”