At the beginning of the 2023-24 year, the McShane Campus Center arcade opened to the public after being under construction since January 2020. It offers a variety of seating and places to study, an alternative to the library for many commuter students. Below the arcade, near Dagger John’s, another benefit for commuter students was added: new lockers.
There had been lockers in the McShane Center previously, but they were removed to make space for the new, technologically-advanced lockers. These lockers can be accessed via an app and don’t require students to purchase locks.
Planned to be free this semester, the lockers are not available yet, and students will have to pay for them in the future. To mitigate the need, Fordham has returned the old lockers to the second floor of McShane outside of the Office of Student Involvement.
“The old ones were sufficient in previous years,” said Crystal Wu, GSB ’25, a member of the Commuting Students Association (CSA), “However, the old ones will be insufficient from here on forward since there are more commuters than I’ve expected this year.”
CSA had an initiative to add more lockers. Previously there were 90 lockers on the second floor of McShane, where the temporary dining hall now resides. There are approximately 120 of the new lockers.
The old lockers were $25 a year and rented via OSI. The price for the new lockers is not yet decided, and students will reserve them via an app accessible from My Fordham.
Students choose the locker on their phone and then unlock it through a button on the app. The lockers will be locked when closed and can only be unlocked by the student. They are on a backup battery, so in the case of a power outage, students could still access their belongings.
However, not all commuter students use or know about the lockers.
“I’ve never used them before,” said Matthew Petrella, GSB ’27. “I guess they’re enough, but I just don’t use them.”
CSA sponsors many events and activities for commuter students, along with their initiatives. They aim to give commuter students the same opportunities as resident students.
“Fordham hasn’t done enough yet,” said Wu. “Being on CSA for the past two years, we have been trying to pass policies that better commuter life. The Fordham admin has denied and objected to many of our proposals.”
“I feel like they [Fordham] should do a little bit more. There’s definitely a lot of things they could improve on to make the commuter experience better,” said John Silaban, FCRH ’27.
Last year, CSA advocated changing the registration time for classes. Previously, it was at 7 a.m., which was inconvenient for many commuter students who were in the process of commuting at that time. The time was changed to 8 a.m., but CSA said they still have more they want to accomplish.
“[That] is still not the proposed time registration we wanted, but we could still nudge Fordham admin a little bit,” said Wu.
Overall, Wu says she does look forward to the new lockers, because “they look clean and easy to use,” she said.
Commuter students often struggle having to bring things like laptops, notebooks, and extra clothes with them everywhere. These updated lockers, once available, allow for easy access and reservation while keeping students’ belongings and valuables safe.
