The Student Life Council (SLC) met for the second time this year on Oct. 9 to discuss improvements that could be made to student life at Fordham University.

To begin the meeting, there was a brief discussion regarding the public agenda topic of washers and dryers not working in certain residence halls. The SLC received emails about the malfunctioning washers and dryers, with the goal being to repair or replace them when necessary. Reese McDonnell, GSB ’26, vice president of budget for the United Student Government (USG), mentioned her own experience with this issue. McDonnell brought up the fact that Walsh Hall, which houses hundreds of students, only has seven working washers throughout the whole building. In order to target this issue, there were suggestions to bring back a past Residence Hall Association (RHA) committee focused on student quality of life. Through this committee, RHA would be connected with facilities to resolve this problem.

Michael Trerotola, President Tania Tetlow’s chief of staff, then introduced an exercise in order to communicate all issues to Tetlow. Post-it notes were passed out for members to write concerns on, which they pasted onto various boards throughout the room. 

Many topics were introduced, starting off with suggestions for updating the university website. The conversation moved to issues with the Health Center, with McDonnell citing an incident where she wasn’t notified of the cost of a Health Center visit until she was charged for it. 

There was also a suggestion to extend the Ram Fit hours on the weekends, as the gym currently doesn’t open until 10 a.m. The issue of mobile IDs not working was mentioned briefly, with Trerotola expressing his personal displeasure with how well the IDs work. 

The council also discussed problems with availability of Ram Van shuttles to and from the D train. Some students have experienced a lack of readily available shuttles at both the Fordham pick-up/drop-off point and the train station. A delay in response time from the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) was noted, and Trerotola mentioned a possible fix underway in the form of new student assistant hires. 

The addition of scanners for residence hall laundry rooms was suggested as a possible solution for off-campus students coming into the buildings to use the washers and dryers. McDonnell cited experience with off-campus students going through back doors, with an emphasis on the danger of unaccounted individuals in residence buildings. McDonnell also shared frustration with non-residential students filling up washers and dryers as she is the one paying for the washers, but off-campus students are the ones using them.

The issue of Public Safety occasionally missing student calls was also addressed. Anna Calendrillo, FCRH ’26 and executive president of RHA, shared that she called Public Safety to ask for a ride back to campus and she was sent to voicemail. Calendrillo also noted that students are told to call Public Safety before they call 911 if they need help on campus, as Public Safety knows the campus better than the New York Police Department. Trerotola agreed that the issue needs looking into, but also shared that if there is an emergency, students shouldn’t hesitate to call 911.

The council discussed the larger issue of Fordham offering excused absences for other, smaller election days where the university doesn’t have a mandated day off. Trerotola denied this request, as there are already longer election days and early voting policies put into place to combat this. However, this sparked the issue of commuter students not being excused from classes due to inclement weather when Fordham doesn’t issue a formal “Snow Day.” There were several personal experiences cited from a previous survey that the Commuter Student Association (CSA) put out, including one where a student was driving to school and a tree fell down, blocking the road. Trerotola shared that absence policies are always at faculty discretion, and therefore can vary depending on the class. However, Trerotola also cited an emphasis on faculty empathy from Tetlow regarding excused absences.

The final issue discussed was one of commuter students not being able to access classrooms in Campbell, Salice and Conley residence halls. The council expressed concerns that commuter students cannot access these halls unless a student who lives there is available to let them into the building. Trerotola stated that external access to these buildings is already in place, and commuter students should have access to these halls for classroom use.

Following Trerotola’s exercise, Tony Berry, Fordham’s inaugural FitzSimons Fellow, talked about his role within the initiative. The goal of the initiative is to increase civic engagement on campus and to put in place events surrounding civil discourse that involve Jesuit values. Berry shared that his role is to discuss civic engagement with Fordham faculty and students. He cited already speaking with both the College Democrats and College Republicans groups at Fordham, as well as future plans to talk at Fordham Preparatory School to seniors on first-time voting (to which Fordham University students are also invited). 

Updates from each of the individual groups making up the SLC were then given. Those noted included Charles Clency, assistant dean of students, who shared a decrease in reported incidents involving alcohol intoxication from last year. The Campus Activities Board shared a current giveaway of tickets in exchange for filling out a suggestion form for Spring Weekend artists. 

The CSA discussed the recurrence of an annual event to donate items such as winter coats to Bronx community nonprofits. RHA also mentioned an update on the now full general board, with all residence hall positions being filled. 

USG shared that there are two remaining empty seats on the Senate for Gabelli School of Business Class of 2025 members. USG also awarded the first Special Proclamation of the year to two students who founded Fordham Food Walks. The organization encourages Fordham students to donate remaining unused meal swipes at the end of each week so that they can gather sandwiches from those donations to give to a nearby food pantry, Part of the Solution. USG noted that 1,000 meals have been donated this school year. USG is also going to look into adding a committee specific to study abroad. 

Fordham College at Rose Hill noted that spring schedules have gone live, with registration dates coming soon. OSI shared that they hired a Fordham College at Lincoln Center graduate for the new student facilities and coordinator position. 

The Office of Residential Life noted that applications for Resident Assistants for the 2025-26 academic year would go live on Oct. 21. Finally, Christopher Rodgers, dean of students at Rose Hill, wrapped up the meeting by sharing that first-year Campus Assault and Relationship Education programming is underway, and that USG had their annual sexual misconduct training.