As a first-year student attending Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH), I have experienced the distinctions between both of Fordham University’s campuses: Rose Hill and Lincoln Center. In my opinion, there are various ways that Fordham can continue to integrate the two campuses, despite the two largely different atmospheres.
Fordham University can continue to integrate the two campuses, specifically with regards to student experience, by creating more co-campus events, joint clubs and student organizations and a platform for students from both campuses to meet and communicate on.
During my first week at the FCRH campus, which largely involved orientation events, Fordham hosted two events in particular, “Glow Rams” and “One Fordham,” that combined the two first-year classes and gave students the opportunity to meet one another. I feel that these orientation events were the best and most meaningful, as a first-year student, because they allowed for more friendships and connections to be made across the two campuses. Fordham University should provide more events like the ones above to continue giving students from both campuses the opportunity to connect.
Since we already have our handy form of transportation between campuses, the Ram Van, there is easy access between both boroughs daily. However, there is typically no reason to specifically travel from campus to campus unless you are attending a class at the other campus. By giving students a reason to visit the other campus, excluding classes, such as joint carnivals, guest/celebrity speaker events or even hosting more Fordham-specific events anywhere in New York City, peers will be able to form friendships and lifelong connections with others much easier than if these opportunities are not provided. Both of my roommates, Abril Gómez González, FCRH ’29, and Morgan Britt, GSB’29, have shared their interests in making more connections with students from Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC), especially wanting more opportunities to meet them outside of class.
Joint clubs or organizations are another great way to unite both student populations between campuses. For example, creating a new branch of United Student Government (USG), since FCRH and FCLC each have their own, that combines students from both campuses would be a great way for students to meet, connect and find new ways for both campuses to interact. Having separate student governments to represent the colleges separately makes complete sense, but why not create a third USG representation to further intertwine both campuses? This way, students can represent not only their specific college, but Fordham as a whole, further uniting both campuses.
Finally, I believe a great way that students could connect with each other between campuses without physically going to the other campus would be via a social platform. With a direct messaging platform, specifically for Fordham University students, undergraduates from both the FCLC and FCRH campuses would easily be able to connect with each other, form friendships and more. For example, this direct messaging platform could have multiple different opportunities within it, with a few ideas including the following: friendship portal, club portal and USG events announcements. As for the friendship portal, students could create a profile for themselves, likely describing their interests, hobbies and various characteristics and be matched with students from their opposite campus to talk to with matching interests. The club portal could be very straightforward: co-campus clubs could message easily to plan meeting times, locations and much more. Furthermore, the USG events portal could show peers different mixed campus events to meet each other, have fun and branch out! Overall, I believe that making a stronger effort to combine both campuses socially would only continue to improve and strengthen Fordham University as a whole.
During my first few weeks at Fordham University, I have closely observed the great opportunities that the school has provided for us students to connect from campus to campus. By providing or even creating more of these opportunities, such as a cross-campus USG representation or direct messaging platform, Fordham will only continue to advance further on its mission to unite both campuses. Just because us students attend college in separate boroughs, New York City unites us all. For that reason, I, along with many fellow undergraduates, would love to continue exploring and making connections between campuses.
Emily Mitton, FCRH ‘29, is a journalism major from Lisbon, New Hampshire.
