Faith Under Fire

WHY I PARKOUR WILL END MESON UP ALONE NEW YORK Opinions, Page 05 Features, Page 18 fordSERVE h a m o b s e r v e r. c Ro rfi November 16,2006 CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF SERVICE TO FORDHAM UNIVERSITY AT LINCOLN CENTER Volume XXV, Issue 6 Faith under FCLC fire rejects new Students contemplate Rose Hill the role of faith in their attendance lives after Fordham policy hosts panel on teens and religion StaffWriter Contributing Writer FCLC—The sprawling greens and varsity sports aren't the only no- FCLC—Fordham may be a Jesuit table differences between Fordham's university, but just how important is Lincoln Center and Rose Hill cam- faith to its matriculants? A panel of puses—there's also the attendance religious and academic scholars met policy. At an Oct 25 meeting, the in the Pope Auditorium on Nov. 2 to College Council at Fordham College discuss the waning devotion to reli- at Lincoln Center (FCLC) rejected gion among today's Catholic teens. In adoption of Fordham College at Rose light of this event, Fordham students Hill (FCRH)'s new attendance policy, contemplated the place of faith in their proposed and approved by the FCRH lives. College Council over the summer. Moderated by the Rev. Edward A. The current FCLC policy allows in- Molloy, president emeritus of Notre structors more flexibility in setting Dame University, the discussion at- their own attendance standards, pro- tracted an audience of visitors as well fessors from both campuses claimed. as Fordham affiliates. V-"*-•' >-.>*&-,_ According to the Rev. Robert R. The fust speaker was Christian Grimes, dean of FCLC, the sudden Smith, author and professor of sociol- appearance of the new FCRH policy ogy at the University of Notre Dame. in the faculty handbook—breaking Smith said that, based on studies and with the standard policy set up by the interviews he has conducted, approxi- University-wide Arts and Sciences mately 12 million Catholic teens in Council—prompted Lincoln Center's the U.S. are weak in terms of overall College Council to consider a change religious strength and engagement in at FCLC.-" thechurch. 4' • KRT However, after notably failing to "Most teens are not [impressed] gain support from professors, die by the standards of their own reli- Parental notification: invasion of privacy FCRH proposal was rejected at Lin- gious faith conditions," Smith said. coln Center, leaving the two under- "Catholic teens [are just more unim- or parents' right to know? graduate colleges with different atten- pressed]" dance policies. Smith said that parents are the most Nancy Young according to the Department of us they are not, then it's different. 'Under the LC policy, I'm free to important factors affecting the faith Editor-in-Chief Education. Otherwise, we work with the exercise my ownjudgment..for an ex- of young people. Margaret McCarty, The Department of Education parents." cused absence," said Sarah Zimmer- founding executive director of the Na- FORDHAM—How much outlines that, although the rights . Higher-level judicial man, professor and associate chair of tional Federation for Catholic Youth should your parents know about under FERPA transfer to a student circumstances, about which me English department at FCLC, who Ministry, who also spoke at the event, your college life? According to at 18, "...a school may disclose parents would be notified, include spoke in favor of keeping the current echoed Smith's statements regarding the Family Educational Rights information from an 'eligible everything from freshman alcohol FCLC policy at the College Council the importance of outside influences, and Privacy Act (FERPA) and student's' education records to the violations, sophomore second- meeting. "I like this policy because claiming that teens require stronger Fordham University policy, as parents of the student, without the time alcohol cases, all drug it doesn't intervene in my relation- mentors and more engaging teach- long as you are a dependent, your student's consent, if the student is cases, harassment, theft and any ship with my students—I can decide ings. parents are entitled to know what a dependent for tax purposes." form of residential life probation, whether or not I need documentation Peter Steinfels, director of Ford- you are doing in college. This clause allows some leeway said Amy Schack, director of in a particular case." ham's Center on Religion and Cul- The U.S. Department of for schools to decide how strictly residential life at Lincoln Center. Three times longer than the policy ture, which sponsored the event, told Education states, "[FERPA] is a they want to abide by FERPA, Parental notification is not that FCLC and FCRH previously The Observer that the Church needs federal law that affords parents according to information on the limited residential students. shared, the new Rose Hill policy in- to stress programs directed at adoles- the right to have access to their U.S. Department of Education Commuters face the same cludes detailed iastructions for what cents—and even programs directed at children's education records, the Web site. Fordham's policy is consequences under the same both faculty and students should do parents of adolescents. right to seek to have the records to keep parents as informed circumstances, Eldredge said. in case of absences due to personal Steinfels said he found the results amended, and the right to have as possible, especially when "The same procedures are in illness, death in a family, or Univer- of Smith's study extremely alarm- some control over the disclosure it comes to students in higher- place," he said. sity-sanctioned activity; as well as ing. "This should be a wakc-up call of personally identifiable level disciplinary circumstances, But what exactly arc the limits on the number of excused ab- to church leaders...it signals how information from the education according to Keith Eldrcdge, dean procedures for parental sences any student may accumulate in much the world has changed since the records." When a student turns of students at Fordham College at notification? a single class. 1960s," he said. 18 or enters a postsccondary Lincoln Center (FCLC). Schack said, "During a judicial "The maximum number of total Kelly Whclan, FCLC ' 10, agreed institution at any age, the rights "The exception to this is if hearing, we usually give a range excused absences will not exceed that her parents' casual attitude toward under FERPA transfer from the a student, is not a dependent," soo FAITH pg. 02 parents to the "eligible student," Eldrcdgc said. "If a student tells SGO NOTIFICATION pg. 04 . see ATTENDANCE pg. 02 02 NEWS November 16,20061 THE OBSERVER fordhamobserver.com NEWS IN BRIEF Students react to midterm elections term elections. "I'm a slacker," METRO: By Nancy Young, Fayollat said. "But I'm from • New York and New Jer- Editor-in-Chief, and California, and it usually goes sey Democrats shared in their Christina Shanahan, - blue anyway, so I felt safe." party's victory in midterm elec- News Editor Fayollat also said that she tions on Nov. 7. Eliot Spitzer, thinks the Democrat takeover the state attorney general, was The Nov. 7 midterm elections is a good change. elected governor of New York resulted in a sweeping Congres- by a record margin, beating sional change as the Democrat- Republican John Faso 69 to 29 ic party gained the majority for percent. the first time in 12 years. • Incumbent Senators Hill- A Facebook.com group, ti- ary Rodham Clinton of New tled, "I will lose all faith in hu- York and Bob Menendez of manity if the midterms go Re- Interested New Jersey both won reelection publican," suggested that many in their races, though Menendez Fordham students supported had faced a challenge from Re- the Democratic party. in politics? publican Tom Kean, Jr. According to a posting on the • Andrew M. Cuomo, who site, students in the Facebook will succeed Spitzer as attorney group said they would feel dif- general, and State Comptroller ferently about the Republican Alan G. Hevesi, who won reelec- party, "if what this administra- tion despite a scandal involving tion said was true, or if they did state workers chauffeuring his somthing effective to fix prob- wife at taxpayers' expense, also lems at home." shared in the Democrats' state- . Other students, such as Jen- wide win in New York. Chuck Kennedy/ KRI nifer Fayollat, FCLC '.07, said Nancy Pelosi, top democrat in the House, is ttiird in line for the presidency. NATIONAL: they did not vote in the mid- • Democrats won control of the House of Representatives, Faith Debate the Senate, and a majority of the nation's governorships in CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE Church, in comparison, encourages mesh [with those of the Church]... Donohue also said that young the midterm elections on Nov. its members to be more self-reli- it's an alienating factor [forme,]" she people are dependent upon relation- 7. The victory was seen as a religion probably influenced her ant—and to make decisions outside said. "I [consider myself] Catholic ships and contact with each other, blow to the GOP and President own. "They never pushed me to go of the guidance of the Church. and a spiritual person and I do feel supporting the idea that community George W. Bush's administra- to church or anything," she stated. Molly Garbe, FCLC '09, said, "I that you can exhibit the qualities of is crucial preserving religiosity in tion, fueled in part by voters' Whelan said about the Catholic- feel like with parents and grandpar- Christ and be a compassionate per- youngpeople. T. -,.. growing frustration with the Church, "[Its] beliefs are too out- ents, everyone went to church—it son and not necessarily agree with "Community is really impor- war in Iraq.

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