By Aislinn Keely

After what Fr. Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., Vice President of Mission Integration and Planning, called “significant burnout” in 2016, The Division of Mission Integration and Planning implemented a new model for the 2017 Urban Plunge experience. The Dorothy Day Center for Justice and Service traditionally runs the program out of its office, but this year the center joined forces with Global Outreach (GO) and Campus Ministry to run the program.

Urban Plunge provides incoming freshmen with information and discussions on the issues pertaining to justice in the community outside of Fordham’s gates. Returning students act as Urban Plunge Assistants (UPAs) to lead groups of freshman, or ‘plungers.’

Some students said they are hopeful about the changes but have reservations.

“I do think there’s a lot of room for collaboration, but I think what’s important is that the heart of what the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice is needs to be kept,” said Anya Patterson, FCRH ’19.

In past years, the Dorothy Day Center’s staff took sole charge of the program, heading it with a staff of only four people, according to Fr. McCarthy, S.J., Vice President of Mission Integration and Planning.

“The Urban Plunge is a fairly laborious project for staff,” he said.

He noted “significant burnout” in the four person staff during the Urban Plunge planning during the summer of 2016. McCarthy said he felt that, as an administrator, he could not ask the staff to take on as much in the future.

“I felt that we needed to have a new model,” he said.

That new model increased the number of staffers involved from the previous four Dorothy Day employees to upwards of 20 people across Dorothy Day, GO and Campus Ministry. McCarthy spoke of “breaking down silos” between departments within the Office of Mission Integration and Planning. He said he was interested to see how these units worked together.

“If we look at peer institutions, what we call Urban Plunge… tends to be a more collaborative effort,” he said.

Roxanne De La Torre, Director of the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice, noted that the collaboration between departments marks changes for the center.

“We’re in pretty much a wide ranging transitional phase right now,” she said.

De La Torre said these changes are to focus efforts on developing service learning on campus.

Though GO, Campus Ministry and Dorothy Day have had a level of collaboration in the past, the collaboration on Urban Plunge helped to “take ownership of the program” according to De La Torre.

“It just created a fuller kind of program in terms of who was involved in training, who was involved in giving the presentations,” she said.
“We were able to serve more students because of it,” said De La Torre. Almost 100 students participated in the Urban Plunge at Rose Hill.

Eighty participated at Lincoln Center, the biggest group to do so in the history of Lincoln Center’s Urban Plunge program according to De La Torre.

The content of the Urban Plunge program looked similar to prior years according to administrators.

“I didn’t think the Urban Plunge actual three days, where the freshman come in for the preorientation program, didn’t change really at all,” said De La Torre.

She said that a commissioning service to recognize the parents and students was added this year.

However, the program changed speakers from prior years. Puerto Rican poet Mariposa María Teresa Fernández presented in place of Gregory Jost. Jost’s presentation focused on gentrification, redlining and the history of the Bronx, while Fernández’s presentation did not according to Tella-Martins and Patterson. Patterson said UPAs were able to fill in the gaps during discussion groups with plungers.

The training of UPAs looked different from past years according to McCarthy.

“There is a way that it was truncated, there’s no question about that,” said McCarthy. “I think given the resources I actually thought that that was the right thing to do.”

Patterson, a second year UPA, said UPA training was important and any changes to the training would result in fundamental changes to the program.

“I feel like changing the training that the leaders get has a huge impact on the experience that the plungers are going to get,” she said.

McCarthy said he understood dissatisfaction at the timespan of training. “I suspect that there are students who would have said that it took away from the richness of the experience, and I actually think that would be a fair critique of the change,” he said.

Campus Ministry helped to reimagine the training component. according to John Gownley, Assistant Director of Campus Ministry for Church Operations and Special Events. He said training aimed to equip UPAs to be welcoming, to guide conversation and to answer hard questions during the Plunge experience.

Anike Tella Martins, FCRH ’20, participated in UPA training this year. She said she would have liked more time for discussion with the reflective components of training.

“We do feel like it could have been more balanced so that way we would still have more time to have more conversations, but besides that it wasn’t overbearing,” she said.

Gownley said that spirituality has always been a component of Urban Plunge and the Dorothy Day Center. De La Torre also said she felt Campus Ministry helped to better integrate Ignatian spirituality and mindfulness.

“The Urban Plunge program has always been, even if you look at documents from way back, the language of faith that does justice. Urban Plunge helps students to explore their faith, a faith that does justice,” said De La Torre.

Patterson said she hopes that the Dorothy Day Center will continue to listen to student feedback as they work closer with Campus Ministry and GO.

“I am very wary of isolating groups,” said Patterson. “People who are turned off by Fordham’s Christian community as a whole, I can see that potentially keeping them away from wanting to be involved with the Dorothy Day Center.”

Brian Daaleman, FCRH ’19, said he “noticed a greater presence of Christian themes,” and worried about isolating students from non-Christian backgrounds.

“While Fordham is a Jesuit institution, we must ensure that we are upholding our mission of welcoming ‘students, faculty and staff of all religious traditions and of no religious tradition as valued members of this community of study and dialogue,’” he said.

McCarthy said that he, and Jesuit education, presumes injustices have roots in spiritual causes. One does not need to be a Catholic or believer to be engaged in justice work on a Jesuit campus according to McCarthy. However, he said students need to be open to spirituality in justice.

“If you’re allergic to that kind of language, then it can be problematic,” he said.

Overall, administrators said they were happy with the result of the collaboration.

“I’ve been really pleased,” said McCarthy.

De La Torre said the program is looking for advancement, not perfection. She encourages student feedback.