Thank you very much Mr. President, Mayor Bloomberg, my fellow honorary degree recipients, faculty and administrators, graduates of the Class of 2009 and especially to your family members. It is such a privilege to be here today and dare I say it, it’s also a relief, because if I were giving these remarks at Columbia, I’d have to speak much more slowly and use shorter words for the class at Columbia.

I want to act with some dispatch this morning before my own alma mater and some of my fellow graduates from my class at the University of South Dakota find out that I’m getting an honorary degree. When this first began to happen in my career, one of the institutions that was giving me the honorary degree called the head of the political science department at the University of South Dakota to check on my resume and my credentials. And Bill Farber, Doc Farber as he was known to all of us, was kind of legendary professor who turned down a record number of Rhodes Scholars, governors, senators, and the occasional journalist, and he said, as God as my witness, he said to the university that had inquired about me, “Well quite honestly, I thought the first one we gave him was an honorary degree.”

I must tell you I checked a little bit on Fordham this morning before I came here. I went to a website called the (college) prowler. So that I can find out what Fordham students think about their institution and I learned a couple of things. You gave on-campus dining  a “D.” You gave nightlife an “A.” And under the category of guys and gals, the grade was “C+.” Now I asked a co-ed on the way in how that was possible and she said, ‘Oh, it’s easy. It was an average. The girls were A+ and the guys were D- and that’s how we got the C+.’

I’ve also been reading your student newspaper and I’m well aware of the fact that while many of you were very generous with your remarks about me, a number of you said as well that you really hoped that Stephen Colbert would be your speaker this year. I don’t blame for that but there’s an explanation. It turns out that Stephen has to spend his weekends in rehab so he couldn’t be here today.

But he’s a friend of mine and a great man and so I asked him if he had any kind of a message for the Class of 2009 and I’m here to tell you this morning, here it is:

“Greetings Fordham. I’ve asked my personal assistant, Tom Brokaw, to deliver this message from me, Stephen Colbert. While I am pleased that many of you would rather have me speak at your commencement than a man who represents journalism, please don’t tell Tom. It would really hurt his feelings. Plus, if you kiss up to him, he might name you the next “greatest generation.” After all, you already got the person and two wars going on, what’s holding you back? Sincerely yours, Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, doctor of fine arts.”

It is always sense of renewal for me to come to an institution such as this on these occasions and look out from this vantage point and see what I think of as a portrait of the American dream. A richly diverse population of faculty members and administrators, of family members and friends, and of students as well, gathered to celebrate the achievements of these students today at an institution rooted in faith but dedicated to the proposition that it will serve the society well. And, thus, in an enduring way, as a highly educated class of young people prepared to take your place in the world. So I’ll spend a few moments, If I can, today sharing with you some of my thoughts that I hope may be helpful.

My late, and exceptionally witty friend, the columnist Art Buchwald, would like to say on these occasions to graduating students, “We have given you a perfect world; don’t screw it up.” It was always good for a laugh, whatever the circumstances at the time.

Obviously, it is a little difficult for me to issue the same order to the class of  2009, even in jest. You are leaving this sanctuary of learning and innocence in a season of uncertainty and anxiety. Daily there are painful reminders that the economic model that has defined your lives was, in too many ways, a house of cards. Indeed, it is a shambles that will not be easily repaired, and even then, it will have a far different shape and evoke far different expectations.

We did, on too many occasions, lose our way and allowed greed and excess to become the twin pillars of too much of the financial culture. We became a society utterly absorbed in consumption and dismissive of moderation. A friend, a very successful businessman who nonetheless lives a temperate life, says appropriately we have to replace want with need. It’s not what we want that should rule our lives but what we need. And, it goes without saying, what we can afford.

Something fundamental has happened and there will be long term consequences when it comes to risk and debt and economic assumptions. That does not mean, however, that you will be consigned to a life of deprivation and struggle. America remains a land of unparalleled economic opportunities with a standard of living that even in these constricted circumstances is well beyond the hope of hundreds of millions in less developed countries.

It is not a perfect world well beyond the economic conditions, of course. America remains engaged in two wars with no tidy end in sight. Rogue nations with nuclear arms, or the potential for acquiring them, show no signs of good behavior. The vital signs of  your mother – Mother Earth – have taken a turn for the worse and the prescribed treatment is complex and controversial.

How we fuel our vast appetite for energy – for consumer, industrial and technological  electrical power, for vehicular power – without exacerbating global climate change is an urgent question for your time. In short, how we live on a smaller planet with many more people is a reality that will define your generation for the rest of your lives.

May I say to you, what more could a generation ask? We have not have given you a perfect world but we have given you dynamic opportunities for leaving a lasting legacy as a generation fearless and imaginative, tireless and selfless in pursuit of solutions to these monumental problems, a generation that emerged from this financial tsunami and re-built the landscape of their lives with an underpinning of sound values and an eye for proportion, knowing that in fact less can be more.

It will not be easy but I promise you it will be rewarding in ways that a Wall Street bonus or a shot onAmerican Idol cannot compete. These are the tests that imprint generations for the long curve of history’s judgment. Those who take an inventory of our time a hundred years from now or a thousand years from now will not measure success or failure by the actions of Mayor Bloomberg or President Obama alone. We’re all on the scorecard now, and we cannot escape that judgment by evasion or prevarication.

So where to begin?

That is a decision you are best prepared to make. And it will be the most rewarding of your decisions if it is rooted in a personal passion and carried out with purpose even when the first steps are small. You have at your disposal an assortment of nimble and powerful tools that can assist you – the vast universe of cyberspace – the internet with its vast universe of information and capacity for research and communication and comments played out on ever smaller devices across an ever wider spectrum of choices. It is a transformative technology It is a force for good and the ultimate end that have still to be resolved.

But those are tools that you have in your hands, they are not oracles; they complement your mind and your heart. They do not replace them.

You’ll not solve global warming by hitting the delete button; you’ll not eliminate reckless avarice by hitting backspace; you’ll not make society more just by cutting and pasting. And do not surrender the essence of the human experience to 146 characters on a Twitter or a Facebook, however seductive the temptation.

You’ll not get a Google alert when you fall in love. You may be guided  by the unending effort of  poets and artists, biologists and psychiatrists to describe that irreplaceable and still mysterious emotion so essential to the human condition but all the search engines in the universe cannot replace the first kiss.

In short, it will do us little good to wire the world, if we short circuit our souls.

And remember, too, that somehow before BlackBerries and iPhones, lap tops and video games, great, enduring and welcome change was achieved.

In so many ways, President Obama is a child of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who when he was just a few years older than you began a historic moral crusade again racial injustice armed with eloquence and passion, courage and conviction. He moved this nation and liberated it, black and white and all colors, from the unconscionable weight of segregation. Somehow he managed without a cell phone or lap top, without a cell phone or web site, without a Facebook or MySpace.

In 1989 a lone and still anonymous Chinese student stood unarmed in front of a Chinese tank and gave the world an enduring image of  the determination of China’s young to change their nation. He didn’t text message the tank or share a YouTube. He put his feet on the ground and his life on the line.

In my travels in this country and abroad, to the inner cities and rural backwaters, to the worst neighborhoods in the most impoverished countries, to war zones and sites of natural disasters the most impressive people I meet are not the governors, and with all due respect, not the mayors, the warlords and prime ministers, the generals and ambassadors.

The people I remember are the idealistic young, the courageous and gifted members of your age group who are the foot soldiers in the long march to ease human suffering. They put their boots on the ground and their hands in the dirt; they spend their nights in scary places and they are never more alive than when they are doing this work not for riches or personal glory but because it is the right thing to do.

Those kinds of commitments need not consume your life but they will enrich it if you make a conscientious effort to dedicate some of your time on this precious planet to helping your fellow men and women who are not as fortunate.

I have some other slightly less weighty observations that may be helpful. You’ve been told recently you’re about to enter the real world. That, in fact, is misleading. Your parents and I do not represent the real world. Neither does this institution, for all of its obvious qualities.

I can speak with some experience when I say to you, and this may be a revelation, the real world was junior high. You’ll be astonished by how much of the rest of your life will be consumed by the same petty jealousies you encountered in adolescence, the same irrational juvenile behavior, the cliques, the dumb jokes and hurt feelings.

To the women of the class of 2009, I want you to be forewarned: Boys who become men take their inner boy with them and also their baseball caps and sports teams and they’ll never completely understand you.

To the male members of this class, remember this: Girls who become women will continue to spend an inordinate amount of time and  money on their hair and shoes. And, guys, you will continue to underestimate their abilities and their ambitions and that’s just the way they want it.

Most of all, remember this – you cannot get through this world alone. You need each other – and we need you to celebrate one another in a common cause of restoring economic justice and true value, advancing racial and religious tolerance, creating a healthier planet. No remarks of mine or parental advice will be adequate substitute for your own determination and commitment to excellence. We’re not your GPS system; at best, as commentators and parents, we’re merely road signs. You must find your own way and I have little doubt you will.

On these occasions in the past I have said, “It’s easy to make a buck; it’s tough to make a difference.” Then a parent suggested a re-wording: “It’s tough to make a buck but if you make a lot of bucks, you can make a real difference.” So for a time I offered both observations as a final word.

This year and these times required still another revision: “It is a lot tougher to make a make a buck these days, but making a difference has its own rich reward.” So go forth from here and make sure that all the riches that you accumulate are rewarding to your heart and mind and to your fellow men and fellow women. I wish you good luck and Godspeed and thank you all very much.

Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, will deliver Fordham University’s 164th commencement address at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 16, on the Rose Hill campus.

A 47-year veteran of broadcast news, Brokaw served as evening news anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw from 1983 until 2004, delivering the day’s events to millions of Americans. During those 21 years, NBC Nightly News rose in the ratings against CBS and ABC to become the highest-ranking network news show—a distinction it still holds. By the time he passed the mantle to Brian Williams, Brokaw had become known as “America’s most watched anchor.”

The South Dakota native began his career in 1962 at KMTV in nearby Omaha, Neb. He soon joined NBC and rose to prominence as a local news anchor and national correspondent. Before being tapped for an evening anchor position, Brokaw served as co-anchor, with Jane Pauley, of NBC’sToday Show.

Brokaw has brought his news insight and integrity to an impressive number of world events. In the 1970s, as NBC’s White House correspondent, he covered the Watergate scandal and resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1989, he reported from the scene of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. On Sept. 11, 2001, Brokaw followed the live attack on the World Trade Center for an entire day on the air, joined by Today Show co-anchors Katie Couric and Matt Lauer.

Most recently, Brokaw stepped in as interim moderator of Meet The Press when his friend and co-worker Tim Russert died unexpectedly in June 2008.

As a political reporter, Brokaw has interviewed every president since Lyndon Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968.

He also has initiated in-depth reporting on tough social and political issues at the core of contemporary American life, both at home and abroad. His work has explored race relations, AIDS, the war on terror, Los Angeles gangs, literacy, poverty, global warming, immigration and the evangelical movement.

Brokaw’s many achievements in journalism and reporting have earned him the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, a dozen Emmys, two Peabody awards and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Brokaw also became a best-selling author with The Greatest Generation (Random House, 1998), a book about Americans who came of age during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. The book spent more than 80 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Today, Brokaw serves as an NBC News special correspondent, providing expertise during breaking news events.

Fordham will present Brokaw with a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, and recognize four others with that honorary degree on May 16: Hon. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of the City of New York; Justin Lin, Ph.D., chief economist of the World Bank; Frank J. Macchiarola, former chairman of the New York City Charter Revision Commission; and Kathryn Wylde, chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City.

Three others will be honored. Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Public School system, will receive a doctor of laws degree, honoris causa, on May 17 at Fordham Law School’s diploma ceremony; and Joe Moglia(FCRH ’71), chief executive officer of TD Ameritrade, will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, on May 19 at the Graduate School of Business Administration’s diploma ceremony.Mindy Fullilove, M.D., professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center, will deliver the keynote address on May 21 at the diploma ceremony for the Graduate School of Social Service.

Hon. Michael Bloomberg

Hon. Michael Bloomberg is the 108th Mayor of New York City. Elected to office in 2001, in his first term, Mayor Bloomberg cut crime; created jobs; unleashed a boom of affordable housing; implemented ambitious public health strategies, including the successful ban on smoking in restaurants and bars; gained control of the nation’s largest school district; and improved the efficiency of government.

In 2005, he was re-elected with the support of a broad coalition of voters. In his second term, while balancing the budget and driving unemployment to a record low, Mayor Bloomberg has taken on a number of new challenges. He launched an innovative program to combat poverty. He’s undertaken a far-reaching campaign to fight global warming. And as co-founder of a bipartisan coalition of more than 200 mayors from every region of the country, he is working to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and off city streets.

Michael Bloomberg began a small start-up company called Bloomberg LP in 1981. Today, Bloomberg LP has over 250,000 subscribers to its financial news and information service. Headquartered in New York City, the company has 9,500 employees in more than 130 cities worldwide.

Justin Yifu Lin, Ph.D.

Justin Yifu Lin, Ph.D., was named World Bank chief economist and senior vice president on June 2, 2008, the first chief economist named from a developing country. A native of China, Lin has served for 15 years as a professor of economics and founding director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University. He has held a variety of public roles in his country, such as deputy of China’s People’s Congress and vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Twice, Lin has been awarded China’s highest honor for economics, the Sun Yefang Prize.

He earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1986. He is the author of 16 books, including The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform (China University Press, 2003), and has published more than 100 articles in international journals and collected volumes.

Frank J. Macchiarola

Frank J. Macchiarola is chancellor and former president of St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Macchiarola’s professional career and public service has touched New York institutions far and wide. He served as New York City public schools chancellor from 1978 to 1983 and as president and chief executive officer of the New York City Partnership, Inc., from 1983 to 1988. He has held dean and/or faculty positions at several major metropolitan area universities, including the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, and the City University of New York campuses at City College, Baruch and the Graduate School.

His most recent commitment to public service is as chair of the New York City Charter Revision Commission.

In 2003, Macchiarola was called upon by the city to help negotiate a fair settlement between the Local 802 Musicians Union and the League of American Theaters and Producers, after a strike shut down Broadway and cost the city millions in revenue.

Kathryn Wylde

Kathryn Wylde is president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization of the city’s business leaders that was established by David Rockefeller in 1979. She also founded the Housing Partnership Development Corporation and served as president from 1982 to 1996.

An internationally known expert in housing, economic development and urban policy, Wylde serves on the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York City Leadership Academy and two New York-based research alliances, one on bioethics and one for the public schools. She is a native of Madison, Wis., and a graduate of St. Olaf College.

Joel Klein

Joel Klein has been chancellor of the New York City public school system since 2002. A New York City native and graduate of the New York City public school system, Klein initiated a comprehensive education reform program as chancellor that included ending social promotion in third, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades and giving principals greater control over how they run their schools while holding them accountable for results.

Klein is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann, Inc., one of the world’s largest media companies with annual revenues exceeding $20 billion. Prior to that commercial venture Klein served under President Bill Clinton as assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division. There he led the 700-lawyer division in cases against Microsoft, WorldCom/Sprint, Visa/Mastercard, and General Electric. He has been widely credited with transforming the antitrust division into one of the Clinton administration’s greatest successes.

Klein holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

Joseph Moglia

Joseph Moglia (FCRH ’71) is chairman of Ameritrade, which grew from a small “dot com” brokerage house to one of the most widely recognized names in financial services during his seven-year tenure as chief executive officer. During that time, the firm’s market capital grew from $700 million to $10 billion and Ameritrade shareholders enjoyed a triple-digit rate of return.

Prior to his career in finance Moglia had a 16-year career as a high school and university football coach.

Moglia holds a bachelor’s in economics from Fordham, where he made the Dean’s List and was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the National Economic Honor Society. He is the author of Coach Yourself to Financial Success: Winning the Investment Game (Wiley, 2005) and has authored books and articles on football.

A 47-year veteran of television broadcast news, the South Dakota native began his career in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, Neb. He soon joined NBC and rose to prominence as a local news anchor and national correspondent. In 1976 he became co-anchor, along with Jane Pauley, of The Today Show.

DATE:      SATURDAY, MAY 16
TIME:       10 A.M. (PROCESSION BEGINS)
PLACE:    EDWARDS PARADE
ROSE HILL CAMPUS
441 E. FORDHAM ROAD, BRONX, N.Y.

Brokaw took over as evening news anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw in 1983. He delivered the evening news to millions of Americans for 21 years, rising in ratings against rival networks CBS and ABC. During Brokaw’s tenure, NBC Nightly News became the highest-ranking network news show—a distinction it still holds. By the time Brokaw retired in 2004, he had become known as “America’s most watched anchor.”

He has brought his news insight and integrity to an impressive number of world events. In the 1970s, as NBC’s White House correspondent, he covered the Watergate scandal and resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1989, he reported from the scene of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. On Sept. 11, 2001, Brokaw followed the live attack on the World Trade Centers for an entire day on the air, joined by Today Show co-anchors Katie Couric and Matt Lauer.

Most recently, Brokaw stepped in as interim moderator of Meet The Press when his friend and co-worker Tim Russert died suddenly in June 2008.

As a political reporter, Brokaw has interviewed every president since Lyndon Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968.

He also has initiated in-depth reporting on tough social and political issues at the core of contemporary American life, both at home and abroad. His works have explored race relations, AIDS, the war on terror, Los Angeles gangs, Bill Gates, literacy, poverty, global warming, immigration and the evangelical movement.

Brokaw’s many achievements in journalism and reporting have earned him the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, a dozen Emmys, two Peabody awards and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Brokaw also became a best-selling author with The Greatest Generation (Random House, 1998), a book about Americans who came of age during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. The book spent more than 80 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Today, Brokaw serves as an NBC News special correspondent, providing expertise during breaking news events.

The University will present Brokaw with an honorary doctorate degree at the ceremony.

Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, will deliver Fordham University’s 164th commencement speech on May 16, the Office of the President has announced.

A 47-year veteran of television broadcast news, the South Dakota native began his career in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, Neb. He soon joined NBC and rose to prominence as a local news anchor and national correspondent. In 1976 he became co-anchor, along with Jane Pauley, of The Today Show.

He took over as evening news anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw in 1983. He delivered the evening news to millions of Americans for 21 years, rising in ratings against rival networks CBS and ABC. During Brokaw’s tenure, NBC Nightly Newsbecame the highest-ranking network news show—a distinction it still holds. By the time Brokaw retired in 2004, he had become known as “America’s most watched anchor.”

Brokaw has brought his news insight and integrity to an impressive number of world events. In the 1970s, as NBC’s White House correspondent, he covered the Watergate scandal and resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1989, he reported from the scene of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. On Sept. 11, 2001, Brokaw followed the live attack on the World Trade Centers for an entire day on the air, joined by Today Show co-anchors Katie Couric and Matt Lauer.

Most recently, Brokaw stepped in as interim moderator of Meet The Press when his friend and co-worker Tim Russert died suddenly in June 2008.

As a political reporter, Brokaw has interviewed every president since Lyndon Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968.

He also has initiated in-depth reporting on tough social and political issues at the core of contemporary American life, both at home and abroad. His works have explored race relations, AIDS, the war on terror, Los Angeles gangs, Bill Gates, literacy, poverty, global warming, immigration and the evangelical movement.

Brokaw’s many achievements in journalism and reporting have earned him the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, a dozen Emmys, two Peabody awards and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Brokaw also became a best-selling author with The Greatest Generation (Random House, 1998), a book about Americans who came of age during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. The book spent more than 80 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Today, Brokaw serves as an NBC News special correspondent, providing expertise during breaking news events.

The University will present Brokaw with an honorary doctorate degree at the ceremony.

The show will be broadcast live, and students and faculty who are interested in attending should arrive at Fordham Preparatory School no later than 3:30 p.m.

In addition to hosting Hardball, Matthews is the host of The Chris Matthews Show, a syndicated weekly news program, and a regular commentator on NBC’s Today show.

“You get a fragment of information that enters the dialogue on an early morning talk show in Detroit,” said Brokaw, who will retire later this year. “It gets picked up throughout the day and then it has some weight. This gives [NBC Nightly News producers] a migraine. We have to track down who said it originally and determine if he or she has an agenda. If we can’t track it down, then we don’t put it on the air.”

Legitimate news organizations have a responsibility to distill this “bad” news, Brokaw said during “An Intimate Conversation with Tom Brokaw,” held Sept. 13 in McNally Amphitheater on the Lincoln Center campus. Sponsored by the Center for Communications at the Fordham Schools of Business and the National Academy of Television, the event preceded the academy’s 25th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, where Brokaw received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Brokaw spent 90 minutes at Fordham being interviewed by veteran TV news men and an audience of more than 200 Fordham students and guests, including Neil Shapiro, president of NBC News, and Brokaw’s successor, Brian Williams. Conducting the interview were William J. Small, vice chairman for the News and Documentary Emmy Awards at the National Television Academy and former dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration; and Av Westin, executive director of the Foundation of the National Television Academy and a former executive producer of ABC Evening News and 20/20.

Far too many media outlets are willing to broadcast or print rumors that have not been fully investigated, according to Westin, who said those organizations are driven more by ratings or political agendas than editorial quality. This race for audience has created what Westin called the “Foxification” of news, where the line between opinion and objectivity has blurred—and in some cases, disappeared altogether.

In response to Westin’s comments, Brokaw said, “People can sort out who’s spinning the news and who’s not. If they choose to view a certain channel, it’s because they find some comfort in what they’re hearing.”

This “opinion packaged as news phenomenon,” he added, is fed by the wide schism along ideological and political lines that’s been exposed by U.S. involvement in Iraq and by presidential campaign strategists.

“War and peace, the economy, how the United States uses its power in the world, we are a deeply divided country on these issues,” said Brokaw. “That’s in part due to the modern strategy of the Democrats and the Republicans. They have hired operatives whose job it is to divide the country along ideological lines, on taxes and social issues.”

Brokaw believes there’s a longing for an authentic public servant who recognizes that there are, and always will be, differences, but who also acknowledges that there’s much we agree on.

Healthy debate is after all a bedrock of democracy, Brokaw said, and journalists have an obligation to ask difficult questions of those on both sides of a debate. The media didn’t ask enough questions in the run-up to the war, Brokaw admitted, and failed to give enough voice to skeptics during one of the most pivotal moments in the country’s history.

“What we can never lose sight of is that this is a country of vigorous and robust debate,” said Brokaw. And in an atmosphere of  “‘you’re for us or against us,’ journalists have to stand their ground and present as many points of view as possible.”

The month-long, post-graduate diploma is collaboration between Fordham, the Center for International Health and Cooperation (CIHC), the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the University of Geneva. The program, held in Geneva in January and at Fordham in June, simulates a humanitarian crisis, with lectures, workshops and the exchange of field experiences. The Institute for International and Humanitarian Affairs was created at Fordham in December 2001 to forge partnerships with relief organizations, publish books and host symposia related to humanitarian aid issues.