Fordham University President Tania Tetlow met with members of The Ram and The Observer on April 7 to discuss Fordham’s recent admissions cycle, federal impacts on higher education, tuition increases and more.
Admissions Statistics
Tetlow spoke on the success of Fordham’s rebranding initiative in relation to the class of 2030 admissions cycle. This year, Fordham received over 54,000 applications, a 23% increase from last year and admitted 47% of applicants, an 11% decrease in the university’s acceptance rate from last year.
Tetlow said these numbers are especially significant given that higher education institutions are experiencing an enrollment cliff as a result of the 2008 recession, which was shown to have led to decreased birth rates.
“I am extremely excited about the statistics,” Tetlow said. “This was definitely a time when it mattered that we not only invest in what makes Fordham special, but we tell that story better. We don’t ever want to be a best-kept secret anymore.”
Tetlow attributed the success of this year’s admissions cycle to Fordham’s recent rebranding initiative and the market research conducted by the Fordham’s Marketing and Communications division.
“I’m so proud of our marketing communications team,” Tetlow said. “They’ve done brilliant work that’s gotten national news coverage on its own with the quality of the work.”
Core Revision
Regarding Fordham’s ongoing core curriculum revision, Tetlow said she is excited about the work the faculty has done to revise the current curriculum.
“I know that the faculty put years of deep thought into what matters most to prepare students for a changing future,” Tetlow said. “What makes this most Jesuit, what really helps students at a time where technology, I believe, has made the humanities more relevant, not less relevant.”
The revised curriculum was passed by the Fordham College Rose Hill Council and Fordham College Lincoln Center Council on March 19. On March 25, the Arts and Sciences Council also voted to pass the new curriculum. The proposal will be voted on by Fordham’s Board of Trustees, including Tetlow, on April 23.
University Risk Assessment
Last summer, the university hired an outside law firm to review over 8,000 pages on the university’s website. The “risk assessment” was met with criticism from the Faculty Senate, who felt that faculty members were being forced to change their websites and raised concerns regarding academic freedom, according to an article by The Observer. When asked about the risk assessment, Tetlow said it was done in an effort to uphold academic freedom.
“We wanted to make sure, as we prepare to defend academic freedom that we feel good about, [the website’s] accuracy,” Tetlow said. “We asked … for a handful of faculty to check their web page to see if their description of their research is accurate. Not to push them to change it, but to say, you know, is this something you wrote 30 years ago and haven’t looked at since, or is this what you want us to defend? Because we will defend it.”
Federal Impacts on Higher Education
Tetlow was also asked about recent actions regarding the federal government. President Donald Trump’s preliminary budget for the 2027 fiscal year was recently released and includes a decrease in funding for the Department of Education. While funding for Pell Grants would increase slightly under the proposed budget, funding for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program and the Federal Work Study Program would decrease. Tetlow noted that Fordham is still a long way from a finalized budget, but said that she has been spending more time in Washington, D.C. to advocate for student financial aid.
“I think that we can speak to our own alumni, to our own communities, with more credibility, and remind them of what they care about, and the opportunity they received in college and that they got through federal financial aid,” Tetlow said. “I’m spending more time on Capitol Hill asking of all the members of Congress who represent us — we have other members of Congress who are alums — and really fighting hard to defend financial aid.”
On another topic related to the Trump administration, Tetlow was asked about a March 26 executive order requiring federal institutions, including colleges, to add clauses to their contracts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and practices by April 25 or risk losing federal funding.
Regarding whether Fordham would add these clauses to its contracts, Tetlow said that they expect the executive order to be reviewed by the courts before they have to take any action.
“Some of the administration’s orders seem to go beyond what is actual statutory law, in ways that create potential constitutional problems, and a lot of those orders are currently the subject of constitutional challenges and litigation,” Tetlow said. “To suddenly tie federal funding to compliance with things that may or may not be legal creates both confusion and real hardship. So, my hope is that this will be resolved in the courts before it comes to that.”
USG Contraception Policy Proposal
When asked, Tetlow also spoke briefly about the United Student Government’s proposal advocating for a change to Fordham’s policy on contraception. She said that she personally disagrees with Catholic doctrine on contraception, but explained that it is part of the church’s teachings and must be upheld.
“Catholic doctrine really straddles the American political divide. In some ways, it’s progressive. In other ways, it’s more conservative by American standards. But we don’t pick and choose,” Tetlow said. “We are better off than schools in isolated communities, because students can walk outside of our door and quickly purchase their own contraceptives.”
She said she has not yet spoken with USG’s Contraceptive Policy Commission, but that she is always happy to listen to students with an open-minded heart.
New Student Orientation
Tetlow outlined a few goals for next fall’s new student orientation. She said the first thing they will be changing is adding an extra day to orientation. She also said they plan to “intertwine” the academic orientation and student affairs orientation, rather than having them held on separate days. Additionally, they plan to continue the One Fordham initiative by inviting Rose Hill students to the Lincoln Center (LC) campus and Lincoln Center students to the Rose Hill campus.
Tetlow noted that transporting students between campuses was a difficult task at last year’s orientation, but that she thinks uniting the two campuses is important.
“I want [LC] students to feel at home here and to have everything that Rose Hill has to offer, that they come to events on this campus, that they get to appreciate the beauty of this campus and the incredible neighborhood that we’re in, all of that,” Tetlow said. “And I want Rose Hill students to feel like they can go to Lincoln Center, have a home in Manhattan, in that incredible location.”
International Students
Tetlow was also asked about updates regarding international student applications. She said that applications for the Gabelli School of Business’s graduate program are down 15% this year, in part due to a decline in international student applications. She added that they are constantly working to help and support international students, specifically with the visa application process.
“We are working to constantly improve our support of international students, to help them get through the process of applying for the visas this summer,” Tetlow said. “We worked really hard on that last summer, and it helped us actually improve the rate that visas were granted, compared to the year before, not because the government was granting them at a higher rate, but because we were doing a better job of handholding students through what is a daunting process.”
Graduate Students Petition the Administration
Fordham’s Graduate Student Workers Union, along with several other student clubs, recently presented Tetlow with a petition calling upon Fordham to adopt enforceable policies that advocate for the protection of international and undocumented students and to make Fordham a sanctuary community.
When asked about the petition, Tetlow said that she is proud of the students for their concerns about their community, but noted that the requests outlined in the petition reflect what is already being done by Fordham.
“The specific requests in the petition really almost entirely match what we’re already doing,” Tetlow said. “And you can see all that on our website.”
Regarding the petition’s demand to make Fordham a sanctuary community, Tetlow said she feels doing that could pose a risk to the Fordham community.
“I think the only area where we would disagree is to declare ourselves a sanctuary campus,” Tetlow said. “I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I would worry that that would make our community more vulnerable.”
Tetlow also emphasized that there are already policies in place requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to present a judicial warrant in order to come onto campus.
Tuition Increase
During the meeting, Tetlow was asked whether tuition would increase for the 2026-27 school year, to which she said that it would. She attributed the increase to the rising cost of providing education and emphasized that these costs are especially expensive in New York City. She acknowledged that the tuition increase may impact some students’ ability to afford to go to Fordham, and said that they are increasing financial aid to mitigate these impacts.
“We literally increase financial aid as tuition goes up,” Tetlow said. “[We’re] really doing our best to put the financial aid budget as accurately as possible towards those who need it most, which is an art more than a science, and to be sure that, especially for returning students, that we make sure not to lose anyone because they can’t afford those last few dollars.”
Contract Extension
To conclude the meeting, Tetlow spoke about her recent decision to extend her contract at Fordham to 2030. She said her decision was influenced by her love of Fordham and her love for the work her and her team are doing.
“I love Fordham so much, and I’m so excited about the projects we’re undertaking and the momentum we’re gaining. I just want to see it all through,” Tetlow said. “I’ve built an extraordinary team here. We’re able to run so much faster now, and I’m really excited about the trajectory of the university,” she concluded.
