Fordham Needs to Readjust the Colleges

By Matthew Calhoun

Over the past five years, the now defunct College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Business Administration have gone under significant rebranding and restructuring from the ground-up to become the unified Gabelli School of Business. These changes have enabled the programs to vastly rebrand themselves and sparked a barrage of donations. With the new branding and funding available, Gabelli has been able to transform into a major player among business schools.

This heavy investment in Gabelli by outsiders has fueled discontent and anger from many of the other constituent schools, notably Fordham College at Rose Hill. Feeling abandoned and overlooked by the administration, liberal arts students have been pushing for similar investments to their college that Gabelli students are receiving. However, the university itself is not fueling Gabelli’s climb to the top, outside donations are.

Even though the university is not at fault, it does not mean there is nothing they can do. Instead of pushing general campaigns for the university as a whole like the “Excelsior: Ever Upward – The Campaign for Fordham” that just closed over its goal last year, they should spark a rebranding strategy all on their own.

Gabelli has successfully rebranded following the “two divisions, two campuses, one school, one mission” mantra. Fordham should push the liberal studies program in the same way, by also severing it from the arts and sciences. Fordham’s science programs have been at the center of a lot of debate and controversy recently. Seeing as science majors following the pre-med track complete a modified version of the core curriculum just like Gabelli students, it only makes sense that they should have their own constituent college as well. Science students have also been frustrated with the severe underfunding the department currently faces. Creating a new college specifically for science offers the opportunity for big donations from alumni, just like the tremendous inflow of cash from donors that occurred during the rebranding period of the Gabelli School from the former College of Business Administration.

The creation of a school strictly for the sciences would also make the engineering program more appealing. As it is, students must transfer to either Columbia or Case Western Reserve University after junior year to finish his or her degree. Should Fordham announce an entirely new college with an entirely new brand, this would create a huge and attractive opportunity for potential donors to contribute to the endowment of the college.

First, there should be a college for the arts at both campuses but focused at Lincoln Center. The arts, whether acting, dance, theatre or the new media and digital arts programs, are an area where Fordham excels as a standout college. Fordham’s dance program, partnered with Alvin Ailey, is second in the country only to Julliard. Media and communications, while seen as “the easy major” at many colleges, is actually one of Fordham’s best programs.

LinkedIn even ranks Fordham as eighth in the country for producing media professionals, well ahead of where LinkedIn ranks Fordham for finance and accounting professionals. New media and digital design is one of the newest and fastest growing majors at the university, and many students in the program choose to minor in marketing, which shares significant overlap in terms of career opportunity. The creation of this college would also attract significant donations, and perhaps a keystone donation from a namesake donor among the many notable alumni who have succeeded in the arts such as Denzel Washington and Alan Alda.

Second, there should be one liberal arts college for both campuses. FCRH and FCLC would be dissolved into one Fordham College. As both schools today offer nearly identical programs, this new college would be less confusing and would eliminate the unnecessary border between the schools. However, the previously mentioned programs would be separated into their own new colleges. This change would improve simplicity in the application process to Fordham, as many prospective students are puzzled by the differentiation of the academics in the two separate schools. Though not being significantly rebranded, Fordham College could draw in donations with the massive excitement being created by the merger of FCRH and FCLC and the creation of the two new schools.

Fordham has clearly outgrown the current alignment of the undergraduate constituent schools. In the past five years, Gabelli has transformed into a much larger, more innovative college at two campuses with both graduate and undergraduate divisions. It is time for FCRH and FCLC to do the same. Gabelli has thrived on donations that have poured in since the school rebranded. A common theory in real estate is “if you build it, they will come,” and the same applies to the rebranding of Fordham’s other undergraduate schools. If Fordham can readjust our arts, sciences and liberal arts programs in an appealing manner, the donations from alumni and any individual or corporation who wants to be involved in the creation of a new innovative brand in higher education will come pouring in.

Matthew Calhoun, GSB ’17, is a finance major from Springboro, Ohio.