What if someone told you it takes 2,700 liters of water to grow enough cotton for one T-shirt, an amount equal to one person’s drinking water for 900 days? 

This was just one of the statistics about the fashion industry’s social and environmental effects shared at this month’s United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations briefing, “Fashion and Sustainability: Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good: Using Fashion as a Vehicle for Change.”

Kelly Roberts, assistant director in Fordham University’s Office for International Services and the University’s representative to the UN, says the goal was “to empower people with knowledge about the impact on our planet by the fashion industry and explore new ways as individuals, within our own institutions, within NGO communities, and in the wider education community to live a consciously fashionable lifestyle.”

The briefing, moderated by Patrick Duffy, founder of the Global Fashion Exchange, featured panelists from global organizations working to enact change in the industry and was followed by a fashion showcase, the first of its kind at the UN. Five designers presented sustainable clothing collections to an audience comprising designers and companies, students from multiple New York universities, NGOs, UN officials, and ambassadors.

Briana Ottoboni, Gabelli ’19, helped Roberts to plan the briefing with the NGO/DPI Executive Committee. A business student with a minor in fashion studies, she was shocked when she first heard facts like the one about cotton.

“I didn’t know anything about sustainability in the fashion industry at that point,” she admits, “so I did a lot of research.”

Then she did something about it.

Linking up with Fordham’s Social Innovation Collaboratory, Ottoboni worked with Carey Weiss, director of sustainability initiatives, to create a sustainable fashion practicum for the university with a team of students from diverse disciplines.

To focus on the lack of knowledge surrounding the harmful cycle within the fashion industry, the group is currently drafting a proposal for a new course allowing any student at Fordham to learn about sustainable fashion solutions. Ottoboni says it should be up and running next year.

In the meantime, Ottoboni also contributed to a new online course on sustainable fashion. The free course, conceived by Roberts and offered through the UN’s Global Compact-affiliated GOWI platform, leads participants through various topics, from sourcing and production to fashion’s sustainable future.

“Anyone can take it, which is nice,” Ottoboni explains, and the course is “written in a way that everyday consumers can understand.”

She says average people can do a lot to help the sustainable fashion movement. While brands can make changes to their own practices, she affirms, “people don’t realize how much power you have as a consumer.”

One way Ottoboni wields that power is by avoiding “fast fashion,” a term referring to companies releasing new clothing collections quickly and cheaply, leading to more textile waste and consumption of resources.

While some sustainable purchases cost more, Ottoboni suggests those with limited budgets can consider spending more on a garment that will last longer instead of buying new clothes more often.

She also believes that in the long term, “ethical sourcing and things like that will become a norm and become less expensive as demand increases.”

The enthusiastic audience at the UN briefing and showcase suggests the trajectory is already in motion, and Ottoboni is especially encouraged by this statistic: 65 percent of consumers are now actively seeking sustainable fashion.

— Chelsee Pengal

On Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m., Fordham will host a panel discussion on the many legal issues that have exacerbated the crisis, its human rights implications, and its humanitarian imperatives.

Dominicans of Haitian ancestry have been pouring over the border into Haiti since 2013. That’s when the Dominican government ordered that all Dominican Haitians must prove Dominican lineage with ancestral birth certificates dating from before 1929, or be expelled.

“An estimated 200,000 people are at risk of being rendered stateless,” said Marciana Popescu, PhD, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS).

Popescu said that birth certificates aren’t issued as rigorously on the island as they are in the United States. She said that the timelines for appeal were rigid and the process was not clear. Lack of information, in some cases, and low literacy levels in other cases, plus the difficulty of obtaining proper identification explained the decision of many to not challenge the Dominican laws.

In August, Popescu visited Haiti at the invitation of Fordham student Kara Lightburn and saw the crisis firsthand. Lightburn is earning her master’s degree from the University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA), and simultaneously spending time on the ground in Haiti. In 2010, she founded Social Tap, a New York-based nonprofit providing services through Haitian partnerships. The group is assisting Popescu with research on the refugee camps forming at the border.

The two women will present an assessment of findings next week.

The ambiguities created by the new laws, the political tensions, and the limitations of international definitions of refugees further complicate this situation. In the absence of a refugee status, no official refugee camps were set up. The haphazard arrangement has left the displaced population living in flimsy tents partially covered with tarps vulnerable to the elements.

“The rain comes in through top and bottom,” said Popescu. “The day after I left, the entire camp was flooded.”

Several people have already died of cholera, she said, since the refugees were not educated on the dangers of drinking untreated water.

While the Dominican Republic has not officially started deportation proceedings, Popescu’s research has shown that an overwhelming 86 percent of Dominican Haitians are returning to Haiti “spontaneously.” Additionally, the military and police have been routinely putting people in cars, taking them to the border, and leaving them there.
The refugees are heading to a country experiencing over 70 percent unemployment, so getting them out of the camps and integrated into the society will not be easy, she said. Further complicating the situation is that the tiny nation is in the midst of a national election.

“Until there is a new government, it’s not clear who is responsible for what,” she said. “One thing is certain, people want to move out of the camps. And while they believe that either the Haitian government or the international organizations should take responsibility, they don’t put much trust in either… and with the ongoing elections, they are left waiting. And for some, especially the infants and the elderly at camp, time is running out.”

The event is being co-sponsored by the IIHA, GSS, and the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice.

The United Nations has selected 24 schools worldwide to be exemplars of responsible business education, based on their emphasis on ethics and social values.

The Fordham Schools of Business are one of those 24—chosen from among 514 candidates.

Members of this “Champions Group” have embraced the U.N. initiative, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), which sets out six guidelines for teaching students to conduct business in ways that benefit both humankind and the environment.

The focus is on how to shift teaching away from traditional business-school models based on profit motive and maximizing shareholder wealth. The new teaching model will strive for a balance of three motivations: people, planet, and profit. It will ultimately lead, the United Nations hopes, to sustainable businesses that help serve society’s needs while not depleting natural resources for future generations.

Among the guidelines are:

• Developing students’ capabilities to be generators of sustainable value;

• Incorporating into activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility.

• Creating frameworks, materials, processes, and environments that enable effective learning for responsible leadership.

• Engaging in research that advances understanding about the social and environmental role and impact of corporations;

Within the Champions Group, Fordham’s main role will be to co-lead a curriculum development effort along with representatives from ESADE in Spain and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Other schools will come aboard as team members.

Membership in the U.N.’s PRME initiative has been one of Dean Donna Rapaccioli’s priorities since 2009. Even before that, Fordham had, under her leadership as dean of business faculty, become part of the U.N. Global Compact, PRME’s umbrella organization.

The Global Compact now includes more than 10,000 corporations and other organizations that have signed on to 10 principles of ethical and caring leadership.

“It is an honor to work with renowned, forward-thinking schools from all over the world to change the nature of business education,” Dean Rapaccioli said. “We have a lot to talk about with them and to learn from them.”

— Claire Curry

In its newfound role, Fordham will maintain an association with the UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI) to promote the work of the United Nations through publications and campus activities, and keep the UNDPI’s nongovernmental organization relations section informed of any relevant activities it undertakes.

In exchange, the association brings a wealth of programming opportunities and special access for Fordham faculty and students, including attending weekly UNDPI-NGO briefings at the United Nations. It also provides students special access to NGOs associated with the United Nations that could result in internships and other UN-related experiences, said Kelly Roberts, assistant director and university Student and Exchange Visitor program coordinator in the Office for International Services.

“Fordham the first institution in New York City to receive the UNDPI association university-wide,” she said. “We’ve already had global leaders on our campus and enjoyed a positive relationship with the UN, so formal association is the next step. It ties together all the programs Fordham has been doing over the years.”

In the past, the University has worked in tandem with the United Nations to host various heads of state—including President Evo Morales of Bolivia and Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. Last year the University presented an honorary degree to the leader of the 66th United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser.

As an associated NGO, a designated representative of Fordham to the United Nations will be granted grounds passes to enter the UN headquarters in New York City for a variety of purposes, including:

• attendance at any open meetings of UN bodies;
• participation in weekly NGO briefings organized by the NGO relations section;
• participation in orientation programs provided for new NGOs;
• invitation to an annual UNDPI/NGO conference, and;
• access to the associated NGO databases.

Two other American universities that hold NGO association status include Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
 Since the United Nations links security, development, and human rights together in its efforts toward building world peace, its mission fits nicely with Fordham’s social justice mission, said Roberts.
 
Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) student Anjanae Wilson has already benefited from the UN-Fordham relationship. Since last October, Wilson has been the designated UN youth representative for the Belgium-based NGO, Close the Gap, whose mission is to provide information and communication technology to developing countries.

 In her role as the NGO’s New York-based advocate, Wilson makes weekly trips to the UN to help facilitate business for the NGO, which refurbishes donated computers and machinery from businesses and organizations and distributes them to worthwhile NGO-sponsored projects around the globe. Recently, Wilson helped narrow the “digital divide” between developed and newly developing countries by putting the founder of a Latin American technology school for girls in touch with her NGO’s reps, who will help fill the school’s computer needs.

 “Working at the UN gives me a chance to learn international social development from the inside out,” said Wilson, whose area of focus is global social work.

“Before I started this relationship with Close The Gap, I didn’t think of technology in terms of social work or social justice. But I see how important it is to empower individuals in these developing communities.

 “We have access [at the UN]to so many meetings, events, and offices that it is broadening my horizons as a global social worker. It’s a great opportunity.”

Fordham conferred an honorary degree upon the outgoing head of the United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, in a ceremony held Sept. 12 on the Rose Hill campus.

The conferral of a of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, upon Al-Nasser, a tireless champion for the peaceful settlement of disputes through resolution, was doubly poignant given the tragic attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya just a day earlier, said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

“It is an honor beyond words that you are with us this afternoon,” said Father McShane. “On this day, when the world will be focused on Libya, it is vitally important for Fordham to stand up in the face of horror and affirm the goodness of one heart, and the untiring work you have done for peace and justice throughout the world.

“It is a great grace to hold you up for all the world as an example to be looked to and followed,” he said. “You have shown us truly the way to peace, the way to dialogue, the way to conversation, the way to building up the human family.”

Al-Nasser was elected as president of the U.N. General Assembly’s 66th session on June 22, 2011 and assumed presidency on Sept. 13. In his year of service, he has worked to advance international peace and security, sustainable development, international disaster response, and to revitalize the Assembly’s critical role in advancing these causes.

A native of Doha, Qatar, Al-Nasser served as the state’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations from 1998 until 2011. In this capacity, he served as chairman of the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee, president of the General Assembly High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation, and chairman of the Group of 77 and China at the United Nations in New York. Prior to that, Al-Nasser served in diplomatic posts in Beirut, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

In December 2006, while serving as president of the U.N. Security Council, Al-Nasser led the council as it took action to fight terrorism and protect journalists in armed conflicts.

Al-Nasser’s diplomatic appointments took him into war-torn neighborhoods, African refugee camps and, recently, through the post-Gaddafi devastation in Libya.

“A diplomat’s constant effort, often behind the public glare, is to search for peace where there is war, to find a solid basis for consensus, for mediation, and, even better, for the prevention of conflicts,” he said, accepting the honor.

Al-Nasser praised the alliances between scholars and those working in the field, characterizing programs such as the IIHA as mechanisms that can “overcome cultural barriers and result in a civilization that unites, rather than divides.”

“Let us resolve, scholars and diplomats, to work for the advent of a better world,”
he said.

Following the completion of his U.N. term, Al-Nasser will begin serving as IIHA’s Diplomat-in-Residence.

Gambari, Nigeria’s longest-serving ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, delivered the commencement address at the 22nd IDHA graduating class on June 29 at the Lincoln Center campus, where he was also presented with an honorary diploma. He used war-torn Iraq as an example of challenges facing aid workers in the new century.

“The security situation has affected the UN’s ability to carry out its activities. . . gross violations of human rights, including killings, kidnappings and torture continue unabated in many parts of the country,” he said. “If [the situation]continues, the political and social fabric of the country could affect the stability and security of the whole region. We have to give the people of Iraq some hope that help is on the way.”

Gambari outlined UN initiatives in Iraq that would protect the aid workers and would stimulate long-term economic development, as ways to alleviate the suffering.

In all, 36 students from 25 nations received the program’s International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance after completing the monthlong course at Fordham. The program is designed to help humanitarian aid professionals function more effectively in times of “complex emergencies,” including wars and natural disasters. Since its inception in 1997, the program has graduated 830 workers from 113 nations.

The course is directed by Larry Hollingworth and administered under Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs.