Casey Chun/The Fordham Ram
By Michael Krzysko
At the end of last semester, articles from various media outlets challenged Fordham University offices and the ways that they handle student affairs. While it may still be too early to truly see if any substantial changes have come from this, it is imperative that Fordham students realize that the forum has been opened, and that we need to continue to challenge the university in order to better it.
It is very easy for us students to lose track of our place on campus, often thinking that we are required to follow exactly what the university’s administration says. This, however, is not the case.
We have a stake in the direction of this university. We have the ability to enact change for the better.
At every New Student Orientation, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. President of the University, tells the incoming freshman class that they are the smartest, and most competitive class Fordham has ever accepted. If this is truly the case, and the quality of student is constantly becoming better, then why is it too much for us to come together as students to ask the university to join us in this growth? The truth is, it is not too much to ask.
We need to challenge Fordham University in its policies that we find unjust or outdated — not because they are inconvenient or annoying, but because they are exactly that: unjust and outdated.
One of Fordham University’s main Jesuit tenets is Magis, the Latin word for “more” or “better.” Students returning to the university are almost all aware of this, as it has been engrained in our minds through Eloquentia Perfecta courses, rigorous core requirements in philosophy and theology and hands-on learning in residence halls.
If it is expected of students to live the Fordham mission every second they are on campus and out in the world, it should not be too far fetched to believe that the university should carry itself in that way.
While I fully believe that the Fordham University administration believes in its mission, I want to issue a challenge: keep going. Continue to work with students on issues that we believe in, in hopes of creating a better Fordham tomorrow that we may not be a part of.
Fordham University is a community of opinionated, passionate, strong-willed individuals who take part in open discussion every day on campus. This gets uncomfortable as students butt heads with one another or with administrators on ideals that each believe strongly about, often times on opposite sides.
What we need to realize, as members of the Fordham community, is that every member of this university holds an equally important belief and we need to listen, feel compassion, and understand as we strive towards creating a better university for us and for future members of the university.
It is with this perspective that I advise every member of the Fordham community: strive to open the discussion even further and strive to be uncomfortable, because it is from this discomfort that we grow together.
We each love and chose to attend Fordham for different reasons, but now that we are one community, it should be our mission to continue to better the university together.
