Commencement Program 2019
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2019 ROSE HILL CAMPUS 18 MAY 2019 10 A.M. COMMENCEMENT 4017_cvr.indd 1 5/6/19 2:31 PM 4017_cvr.indd 2 5/6/19 2:31 PM Sapientia et Doctrina Wisdom and Learning The Fordham University Seal The Great Seal of Fordham University proclaims that Fordham has been a Jesuit university since its founder, Archbishop John Hughes, entrusted it to the care of the Society of Jesus five years after its founding in 1841. Hence, the coat of arms of the Society of Jesus stands at the center of the Great Seal of the University. The coat of arms bears the Greek letters for the name Jesus—IHS—with the cross resting in the horizontal line of the letter H, and the three nails beneath in a field framed in maroon, the color of the University, with fleurs-de-lis on the edge of the maroon frame. Around the Society’s coat of arms is a scroll with the University’s motto, Sapientia et Doctrina (Wisdom and Learning). The scroll rests on a field in which tongues of fire are displayed, recalling the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of wisdom (sapientia) that marked the first Pentecost. A laurel wreath at the center of which are listed the names of the disciplines that are or have been taught at the University rests at the top of the seal. (The University had a medical school from 1905 to 1919 and a College of Pharmacy from 1912 to 1971.) These central heraldic devices are enclosed within a circular field fashioned as a belt and edged with beads. The field bears the University’s name (rendered in Latin) and the date of its foundation. Fordham University is one of only two institutions in the world whose seals are enclosed with a belt surround. Oxford University, the mother of the universities in the English-speaking world, is the other university whose seal is fashioned in this way. 4017_txt.indd 2 5/9/19 2:37 PM Program Processional Grand Marshal J. Patrick Hornbeck II Secretary, Faculty Senate Welcome Master of Ceremonies Jonathan Crystal Interim Provost Invocation Mary Chilton Callaway Associate Professor of Theology The Presentation of Fordham University Army ROTC the Colors and the The Fordham University Choir and Band National Anthem The Conferring of Reading of the Citations Honorary Degrees The Academic Deans Conferring of the Degrees Joseph M. McShane, S.J. President, Fordham University Robert D. Daleo Chair, Fordham University Board of Trustees Commencement Timothy Shriver Address Chair, Special Olympics International Board of Directors 4017_txt.indd 3 5/9/19 2:37 PM One Hundred Seventy-Fourth Annual Commencement | 18 May 2019 | 10 a.m. The Conferring of Presentation of the Candidates Degrees in Course Frederick J. Wertz Interim Dean, Fordham College at Lincoln Center Cira Vernazza Associate Dean, Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies Donna Rapaccioli Dean, Gabelli School of Business Maura B. Mast Dean, Fordham College at Rose Hill Faustino M. Cruz, S.M. Dean, Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education Virginia Roach Dean, Graduate School of Education Debra M. McPhee Dean, Graduate School of Social Service Melissa Labonte Interim Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Matthew Diller Dean, School of Law Conferring of the Degrees Joseph M. McShane, S.J. Benediction Thomas J. Scirghi, S.J. Trustee, Fordham University Board of Trustees Rector, Fordham University Jesuit Community Alma Mater The Fordham University Choir and Band and Recessional 4017_txt.indd 4 5/9/19 2:37 PM Citations Ellen R. Alemany | Doctor of Humane Letters With a 40-year career in banking and as one of the few women to serve as chairwoman and CEO of a major bank, Ellen Alemany has been a trailblazer in the finance world. Alemany joined CIT Group in 2016 to turn around the then-troubled commercial finance company. Under her leadership, CIT has rebounded, transforming into a profitable mid-sized bank. She is “a master of the corporate turnaround,” according to American Banker, which ranked her the third most powerful woman in banking in 2017 and in 2018. Her path to the boardroom started in the Bronx. She was part of a small business family with Italian heritage, and her parents ran a store on Arthur Avenue. She loved helping out and learning the business. After graduating from the University of Bridgeport in 1976, she worked at Chase Manhattan while going to Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business at night to pursue her M.B.A., earning it in 1980. In 1987, Alemany joined Citigroup to take a job that was closer to her Westchester home and gave her flexibility to focus on her oldest daughter, who was born with cerebral palsy. She held executive positions at Citigroup, including CEO of Citi Global Transaction Services. In 2007, she joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, where she served as CEO and chair of RBS’s Citizens Financial Group. In 2013, she retired at the top of her game and soon after joined the board of CIT. This is when it became clear that Alemany’s decades of experience in commercial banking, and small business roots, would be the ideal combination to chart the course of CIT’s turnaround. She was named chairwoman and CEO in 2016 and since then has transformed CIT into a national bank that empowers small and mid-sized businesses and personal savers to navigate their financial goals. When businesses thrive, people and communities thrive, and Alemany has upheld this philosophy throughout her career. She knows firsthand the strength growing businesses can bring to a community and has fostered a strong culture of community support at CIT. Driving personal and economic empowerment is a core focus for her and the bank, including through the most recent Launch + Grow small business training program for women entrepreneurs. “Financial literacy means freedom for people,” Alemany told the Los Angeles Sentinel. “[It] gives them the ability to go out and live the American dream.” For her achievements in business and her commitment to fostering economic opportunities for all, we, the President and Trustees of Fordham University, in solemn convocation assembled and in accord with the chartered authority bestowed on us by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, declare Ellen R. Alemany Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. That she may enjoy all rights and privileges of this, our highest honor, we have issued these letters patent under our hand and the corporate seal of the University on this, the 18th day of May in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen. This degree will be presented at the Gabelli School of Business diploma ceremony for master’s candidates on 20 May 2019. 4017_txt.indd 5 5/9/19 2:37 PM Citations for Honorary Degrees Robert P. Casey Jr. | Doctor of Humane Letters Robert P. Casey Jr. has been a leader in many policy areas as the senior U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. A principled statesman with an ample heart, he reflects the tenets of Jesuit education through his diligent efforts and compassionate concern for the most vulnerable. A native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of a former governor of the state, and the grandson of a graduate of Fordham Law School, Senator Casey graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1982, spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in inner-city Philadelphia, and earned his law degree from The Catholic University of America. After practicing law in Scranton, he served as Pennsylvania’s auditor general and then state treasurer before winning his first election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. Among other achievements, Casey was the prime Senate sponsor for the Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, also known at the ABLE Act, which became law in 2014. Hailed by the Associated Press as “the most important new law for [those with disabilities] in 25 years,” it provides for tax-advantaged savings accounts to help people meet the expenses of living with disability. Casey was also the lead sponsor of the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, with its new transparency and awareness measures, which was signed into law in 2013. Beyond Casey’s legislative record, his character shines through in day-to-day actions, like making a flurry of phone calls in May 2017 to try to help a Honduran mother and son whose lives he believed would be endangered if they were deported. He has won respect as a listener who takes in all points of view—as Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse told Philadelphia magazine in 2018,“His signal characteristic is sincerity.” Casey and his wife, Terese, have four daughters, two of whom are Fordham alumnae—Julia Casey, a 2016 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill, and Marena Casey, a member of its Class of 2019. In 2016, the Fordham Alumni Chapter of Washington, D.C., honored Senator Casey with its Brien McMahon Memorial Award for Distinguished Public Service in the Fordham tradition. For his devoted and wide-ranging efforts to help others throughout his career in government service, we, the President and Trustees of Fordham University, in solemn convocation assembled and in accord with the chartered authority bestowed on us by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, declare Robert P. Casey Jr. Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. That he may enjoy all rights and privileges of this, our highest honor, we have issued these letters patent under our hand and the corporate seal of the University on this, the 18th day of May in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen.