Three high-ranking student leaders at Fordham University have submitted three separate letters of personal grievances and one letter of no confidence in Assistant Dean for Student Involvement Catharine McGlade, the top administrator at the Rose Hill Office for Student Involvement (OSI). McGlade plays a key role in overseeing the work of over 170 student organizations at Fordham. These documents highlight administrative delays and allege a failure to adequately support students.

The letter of no confidence — which received 123 signatures — was submitted to Fordham President Tania Tetlow, the university’s Office of Human Resources and all members of the Faculty Senate on Jan. 17. The four letters ranged in length from eight to 42 pages and included screenshots and other material to back up the students’ complaints.

Student leaders across the United Student Government (USG), the Campus Activities Board (CAB), the Residence Halls Association (RHA), Commuter Students Services (CSS), student employees who work for OSI, students involved with orientation and other club leaders signed onto the letter of no confidence.

“This is not limited to one problem that someone had with staff or one complaint,” said one of the student organizers. “It’s a very special situation. We want to speak to the Faculty Senate. We want to speak with the President. We want to speak to whoever.”

Twenty-five current and former students and employees were interviewed for this story. Many of the students who spoke with The Ram cited concerns about protecting their current work-study employment, potential retaliation and the negative stigma involved with discussing sensitive topics, and were granted anonymity.

Over the course of a month, McGlade did not respond to The Ram’s multiple requests for comment regarding the letter of no confidence, letters of personal grievances, her workload, the workflow in OSI and other issues.

According to the students, the goal of those who signed is not to ask that McGlade be removed from her position, but rather for upper administration to address the concerns raised and ensure students have a better experience working with her going forward.

An email obtained by The Ram, sent from student organizers on Feb. 25 to those who signed the letter of no confidence, said that McGlade expressed that she wants to meet with the organizers. The organizers said in the email that they are willing to do so.

Vice President for Student Affairs Michele Burris, Assistant Vice President and Dean for Students at Rose Hill Christopher Rodgers and University Spokesperson Bob Howe replied together to a request for comment, saying, “This issue and cases like it are a Catch 22: you can’t report on them accurately without receiving information about employees that is confidential by law. Here the desire for freedom of information is in opposition to privacy and employment law. Fordham’s position is that, besides being illegal, it would be irresponsible and damaging to the University to betray employees’ right to privacy.”

“Our approach to any complaint about processes, policies, and services is to make sure we follow it up, often meeting with students to learn more, share information, and come up with ways we can work together to address the concerns,” the statement continued. “This process is underway and we plan to continue to do this going forward.”

Associate Director for Campus Center Operations Stephen Clarke, who was on medical leave from July 2024 to December 2024, also declined to comment.

Assistant Director for Student Organizations and Programming Mark Less did not reply to a request for comment.

The Details

The letter of no confidence was organized by two former high-ranking members of USG and an OSI student employee, FCRH ’25. The students signed the letter of no confidence with their full names and positions. The letter details “negative effects” on students as a result of shortcomings within OSI, alleging that McGlade’s actions have delayed club approvals, slowed student payments and hindered event planning.

The letters of personal grievances and the letter of no confidence presented these complaints. Numerous students and alumni involved in OSI who spoke to The Ram corroborated these statements.

Additionally, two former full-time OSI employees who had daily contact with McGlade shared concerns about her conduct. These former full-time OSI employees, who requested anonymity due to potential consequences to future careers, described chronic delays in making payments and consistent issues when scheduling meetings with McGlade. They say these delays contributed to an overall work environment that negatively impacted both students and staff.

“Anybody who works in that office is going to experience these kinds of delays. You can’t get around it,” said one former full-time OSI employee. “Nothing is done in any timely fashion.”

The Lead-Up

After five years as assistant dean for student involvement, Cody Arcuri, McGlade’s predecessor, left Fordham in December 2021. A panel of five students and administrators was then convened to vet candidates to replace him.

One former full-time OSI employee said that late into the hiring process, the panelists were asked to consider McGlade. “There were three candidates and all were internal within Fordham University,” the former employee said. “Then almost two months later, we were asked to consider this fourth candidate, who turned out to be Dean McGlade.”

McGlade originally studied at Fordham College at Rose Hill as a commuter student and later moved on campus as a resident assistant. She then received two master’s degrees from Fordham for Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) in 1999 and in Education and Counseling in 2006. She worked at Fordham as the associate director of Judicial Affairs in 2007, then left until her return in May 2022.

Since McGlade took over OSI, multiple sources interviewed by The Ram allege that unpaid timesheets, backlogged invoices and routine late approvals have disrupted the office’s operations. These were among the concerns brought up in the student letters sent to Tetlow.

“We had a bunch of invoices to vendors for orientation, for clubs, for pretty much all of OSI’s operations that were not being paid or being paid late,” one of the former employees said. They noted that, in some cases, months would pass before essential paperwork was signed.

Another former full-time OSI employee described frequent meeting delays or no-shows during Zoom interviews with McGlade. “Students, administrators, deans, staff — even candidates applying for jobs — are left waiting on the other end,” said the source. “If it’s not a no-show, it’s a rescheduling or she’s extremely late.”

The letters of personal grievance written by students noted numerous instances where they had difficulty arranging meetings with McGlade. Specifically, students felt that their time was “disrespected” and one letter details a “track record of [McGlade] being late to meetings or me showing up and her not even being in the office.”

In addition to the letter writers, the other former full-time employee said that multiple Fordham offices did not adequately address the complaints being raised about McGlade and OSI. “Multiple complaints were made directly to Student Affairs and directly to Human Resources,” the source said.

Responding to a request for comment, Fordham’s Office of Human Resources emailed The Ram the following:

“HR does not discuss confidential employee matters or complaints in order to comply with privacy regulations and, more importantly, maintain the trust of our colleagues who seek assistance,” said the department. “When HR related concerns are raised, they are addressed with departmental leadership through various interventions including but not limited to consultations, advice, coaching, training, facilitated discussions, performance improvement plans, investigations, and recommendations of discipline as appropriate.”

Some interviewees say McGlade has positively contributed to OSI but think that she might have more success in another office. One former full-time employee explained, “I think that there’s something out there for her. I just don’t think this was a good fit.”

The Response 

The students who wrote the four letters point to administrative shortcomings as a motivation for their formal complaints. They say that for more than a year, they tried to resolve issues privately, but saw no meaningful change.

One OSI student worker, FCRH ’25, who helped organize the letter of no confidence, said, “At some point, we had no choice but to make this public and ensure the administration could no longer ignore what’s happening.”

Student leaders say the lack of communication through OSI as a whole has negatively affected club operations. Jenn Fluet, GSB ’25, president of Fordham Marketing Association, said her club faced event planning and funding difficulties due to OSI’s alleged disorganization. She did not sign the letter of no confidence but expressed support for its goals.

“[OSI is] so unorganized and I will absolutely give them the benefit of the doubt,” Fluet said. “They can’t just completely stop, take a beat and rework their entire system and organization without letting clubs down for a semester to completely overhaul all their systems.”

Several students familiar with the orientation operations under OSI were also interviewed and expressed concerns over McGlade’s delays in responding to emails. Second-year orientation captain AJ Boyd, FCRH ’25, recalled frustration about McGlade’s unresponsiveness. “We emailed her on August 29, 2024, asking for a meeting, and we didn’t hear back for two months,” he said.

Ava DeVita, FCRH ’23, former president of CAB, spoke about what reaction she would like to see from the Fordham administration concerning the student letters which she did not sign.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said DeVita. “You’ve got to show me you’re willing to help us put on these events because you can’t do it without [OSI]. When students aren’t getting the attention they deserve … relationships are going to get strained.”

DeVita added that McGlade was “always very willing to help” and that their conversations were “pleasant for the most part.”

The Future

McGlade remains in her position as assistant dean for Student Involvement.

According to the email from student organizers to those who signed the letter of no confidence, the organizers are in the process of planning a meeting with administration.

“During this meeting, we are to come prepared with a set of expectations and specific points of contention that we will present to [Burris, Rodgers and McGlade],” said the email obtained by The Ram. “After reviewing these points [McGlade] will agree to a new set of expectations in front of her boss(es) that address the chief areas of concern presented by the students and will adjust her behavior going forward.”

The email also says that the student organizers have requested that “students be made aware of specific avenues through which they can report violations of these expectations.”

Associate Professor of theology Jude Jones, a faculty senator for Fordham College at Rose Hill and chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Student Experience, told The Ram via email on Monday, Feb. 3 that Student Affairs is currently discussing the situation raised by the student letters, “and doing what they can to address the concerns carefully.”

“The Senate asked me as Chair of the Committee on Student Experience to follow up with VP Michele Burris, which I did, at some length,” Jones continued. “I have reported back to the Senate that the matter is being handled in Student Affairs, and that I will keep abreast of the situation as it develops.”

The student organizers said they will continue to meet with Burris and Rodgers as they work to find a solution that satisfies all parties.

“You’d think they’d realize after all these complaints that something’s not right,” said one former full-time OSI employee. “I really hope something changes here, because it can’t keep going on like this.”

This is a developing story.

If you have any experiences you would like to share with The Ram, please email us at [email protected]

A Note on Anonymous Sourcing: 

The Fordham Ram strives to build trust with sources and engage with them in a respectful and appropriate manner in pursuit of ethical journalism of the highest standards. The Ram’s Standards and Practices policy, which outlines the paper’s code of ethics and sourcing policy, states that The Ram will opt for anonymity only under certain circumstances determined in conversation with the interviewee and approved by its top editors.

Additional Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article misidentified student signatories affiliated with Commuter Students Services (CSS) as members of the Commuter Students Association, which is a student organization that works directly with CSS.