The Fordham University Student Life Council (SLC) met to go over updates from a host of administrators at their meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the McShane Campus Center Room 112.
Fordham Associate Director of Operations Nicole Vaughan shared that the Thanksgiving break stay application forms are now available and that anyone looking to stay should submit their application by Thursday, Nov. 20. Vaughan also announced that Resident Assistant application forms are also open and will be live from now until mid-January for anyone looking to apply.
The Fordham Ram asked about ResLife’s response to the increase in flight cancellations and what they will be doing to add support for students who may face complications in their Thanksgiving break travel.
“We’ve always approved students late if they need to reach out for any reason, especially related to travel. We’re pretty flexible at that point,” Vaughan said. “We also have staff on calls 24/7. So if there is any issue … they can call public safety, get in touch with the resident director on duty, or we also have cluster resident assistants on duty.”
SLC also introduced the university’s new assistant vice president and the Dean of Students Kevin Williams, who will now be replacing the newly promoted Fordham associate vice president for Strategy and Operations Christopher Rodgers, as he continues to transition into his new role full-time. Williams has worked at Cornell University under a similar position for the past five years, and before that, has experience at other higher education institutions such as The New School, Temple University and Oberlin College.
The SLC meeting marked Williams’ eighth day here at Fordham. He encouraged any students who have questions or want to discuss anything to stop by his office, located in the McShane Campus Center, room 255.
Following the introduction of Williams, the SLC Chair Reese McDonnell, GSB ’26, introduced the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs in Arts and Sciences Robert Hume.
He shared that his new position, which followed the restructuring of the Arts and Sciences, involves overseeing and providing assistance to all of the faculty within the Arts and Sciences department at Fordham.
Hume noted that recently, a major part of his job has recently involved overseeing the hiring process for the new Senior Director of the Center for Educational Innovation Margaret Konkel.
He added that Konkel has been working on a couple of initiatives, one of which is teacher training across Fordham, which includes basic training and several specialized sessions.
Hume also asked SLC for thoughts on the end of the year’s course evaluations. Several student members of SLC, such as McDonnell and also the President of the Resident Halls Association (RHA) Anna Calendrillo, FCRH ’26, noted that the low response rates could be because students tend to refer to course reviews from outside sources, such as Rate My Professors.
“You’ll see a really high response rate for professors on something like Rate My Professor because students feel like that’s an immediate way to show how a professor was in a way that’s going to help fellow peers, whereas I’m sure the evaluations are doing this … I don’t think it’s as quickly visible,” Calendrillo said.
Following this discussion, McDonnell introduced the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Director of Academic Admission and Support Meredith Nelson.
Nelson then had outlined the accelerated master’s programs, which include a five-year plan, consisting of four undergraduate years and one year as a master’s student, with three master’s classes being taken in the second semester of one’s senior year.
Fordham Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Charles Clency provided the monthly intoxication report for October, specifically noting Halloween weekend. Clency said that 47 intoxication transports have happened this fall, which compares to the 43 at this time last year. There have also been seven Refusals of Medical Assistance.
Rodgers reflected. “Dean Clency, Dean Williams, myself, we were a little concerned with the activity over the Halloween weekend,” Rodgers said.
Fordham’s United Student Government was then asked to present its updates. Vice President of Operations Tina Pathak, FCRH ’28, shared that there are eight clubs that have gone defunct following operations packet reviews at their Ops Day.
Vice President of Budgets and Finance Peter Grimes, FCRH ’26, shared the overall USG updates for Executive President Lucas Hjertberg, FCRH ’26, who was absent.
USG had hosted a day of service on Sunday, Nov. 16. “Over $2,000 of food purchased with the USG funding will be packaged and distributed to POTS [Part of the Solution] as the Bronx struggles amid missing SNAP funding,” Grimes said.
Rodgers added that the university will remain open to students over winter break.
The next SLC meeting will be on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
Additional reporting was provided by Emily Tonna.
