The Great Do Evening American Students Get Meatout the Shaft? page 11 page 5 The bserver March 10.1999 THE STUDENT VOICE OF FORDHAM COLLEGE AT LINCOLN CENTER 51 Law School Fordham Outlines Cost Containment Plan, Residents Avoid Including Significant Change in Class Size and Availability Eviction From By Johanna Garcia the faculty, department by department, McMahon Hall to look at whaf s going on and deter- By Jane McGonigal Fordham University's administration mine how to best use our resources in detailed a cost containment plan that ways that will give the best education The week-long controversy of how to includes increasing class size, cancel- to our students and at the same time, address the concerns of 51 law school ing classes with low enrollment, and try to keep the costs of that education students, current McMahon Hall resi- increasing the course load of regular as low as possible." dents who were unexpectedly denied faculty members in order to handle the Michael Gillan, dean of FCLS said, housing for the 1999-2000 academic projected increase in the University's "Hiring and retaining good faculty is a> year after their lottery was suddenly undergraduate student population, very large part of the expenses of any canceled, ended at.a meeting between according to a memo and several docu- good college, but the university has to administrators and law student repre- ments distributed at the Arts & manage its incoming revenues so that classes up to 35 students and large lec- sentatives held Wednesday evening, Science Council last December. sufficient funds can be devoted to ture classes up to 100 students; video March 3, stated Dean of Students "The average class size will rise mod- ' other things as well. Thes.e include conferencing' for classes and faculty Mary Jane Conlon, who oversees the estly in the coming years and well with- technology, library books arid periodi- meetings on the two campuses; offer- Residential life process. Anew lottery in the national norm for a quality edu- cals, science equipment and materials, ing certain courses less frequently; will be held that will randomly grant cation. Importantly, more students will and financial aid packages for stu- monitoring the teaching productivity of housing to 36 of the 51 formerly evict- be taught by regular professors rather dents. This ensures that Fordham will each department every semester; ed students, stated Conlon, and the than by adjuncts or graduate assis- not just be running in place, but will increasing the role of regular faculty in remaining 15 are likely to be given tants," Dr. Robert W. Carrubba, vice be a stronger institution as its enroll- teaching core curriculum classes housing sometime before the fall as president of Academic Affairs said. ment grows." instead of relying on adjuncts, and the spaces open up. Robert Grimes, S.J., dean of FCLC The eight-step cost containment plan more effective use of existing class- This solution comes after protests said, "The cost containment plan is not includes canceling classes with less rooms instead of building new ones. and strategic meetings organized by just about saving money. If s also about than 15 students enrolled; introducing Grimes said, "Let's not assume that the law school students after they trying to improve quality. Ifs asking larger classes, specifically medium-size the way we've (continued on page 3) were informed on Monday night, February 22, that they would have to move out of the residence hall. These 51 students had all elected to partici- Reading Days are Passed for FCLC pate in the housing lottery, which By Jennifer Marino allows students to vie for a better and Sciences Council fell on Matesic, College of liberal Studies and the rest apartment, rather than retaining their On February 23, reading days for who was on the USG reading days of Fordham. current suite. Fordham College at Lincoln Center committee along with sophomore sen- "The council instructed the Dean of According to the housing informa- were passed at a meeting of the Arts ator Chris Owens and freshman sena- the Gollege of Liberal Studies to work tion packet distributed to all residents, and Sciences Council, a committee tor Kevin Thurman. "I want students to things out so it wouldn't cause prob- the lottery takes place after students comprised of professors and deans, see that USG cares about them. lems," remarked Boyle, and he then who wish to retain their apartments and will be implemented in Fall '99 Basically, I am doing this for the bene- felt confident to vote yes. inform Residential life of their deci- according to sophomore senator fit of the students," she said. Matesic believed that some profes- sion. This year, 120 students opted to Melissa Matesic. "Obtaining reading Matesic explained that USG was sors had other problems with reading retain. The high number of retaining days at FCLC has been a major part of worried that the issue of reading days days, "Some professors think that stu- residents created a major problem for United Student Government's agenda might be pushed back to another meet- dents won't do any work all semester the 51 students planning to participate for this year," said Matesic. ing because it was the last item on the and cram on those two days or they'll in the lottery, since the law school Reading days are two class-free days Arts & Science Council's agenda. just party for those two days. But, it will allots only 120 beds total in McMahon before finals that allow students to A member of the Arts and Sciences be beneficial to students, we need a Hall for second and third year law stu- study, a practice that has long been a Council, Professor Frank Boyle, chair- break," she said. dents, according to Conlon. The part of Fordham College at Rose Hill's person of the English Department, Dr. Boyle agreed and felt most of the other 130 beds are reserved for first academic calendar, stated former said he did not feel there was much council "strongly supported" reading year students and could not be given United Student Government (USG) controversy over reading days. "The days. "The student speaker [Matesic] to second or third year residents. Vice-President Anna Meresidis in a let- only issue was how reading days was poised and well-spoken, She did a After the 120 retaining students had ter to students. would be integrated with the College very good job," he said. Matesic was been granted housing, stated Conlon, When Mereaidis resigned from her of Liberal Studies," commented Boyle. happy because reading days will bene- there was no more room for the lot- position earlier this month, the job of He was afraid it might "widen the gap" fit her as a student She stated, Tve tery-bound (continued on page 7) presenting reading days to the Arts that already exists between the gotten a lot of Thank-you's." • News March 10,1999 cants is due to three factors, according able to portray that better than we have Admissions Receives to Giglio. There are more high school in the past" students applying for college. Alongside the growth in the num- Therefore, universities nationwide ber of applicants, there has been an Record Breaking have been receiving a larger number of increase in the number of female appli- applicants," said Giglio. cants. "This is the eighth straight year Number of Applicants The second factor is the increase in that we have had more applicants, and popularity of New York City. "NYU and the balance has always been more for Class of 2003 Columbia have also seen growth female applicants," said Buckley. because the city's image is more posi- However, this is attributed to a national By Kristina Chua pool of students to choose from," said tive," said Giglio. trend, which is more skewed to female Joe Giglio, FCLC Admissions. "Fordham has been able to associ- applicants, according to Buckley. February 1 was the application dead- According to Giglio, the size of last ate itself with New York City, and this „ Fordham is also seeing a more geo- line for high school students hoping to year's freshman class is as large as is a big part of our push," said1 Buckley. graphically diverse group of applicants enter Fordham this fall, and so far, a Fordham would like to get or can get The third factor is that Fordham has than in the past according to Buckley. record breaking number of 8300 appli- "So right now we "In Fordham cations has been recorded, according reaiiy want to focus "So right now we really want to focus on academic college at to John Buckley, dean of Admissions. aC ua coin The number represents an 8% increase and d?verSty. v!^ quality and diversity. We are really lucky that we , for over last year's number at this same xamp le are reaiiy lucky that nave a |arger se|ection to choose from and can f. point in time, Buckley said. xut>we havpe a largetaraprr ** there havtiave "With such a large number of appli- selection to choose therefore be more selective. been stronger cants, it is a challenging task for the numbers from from and can there- Admissions Committee, yet the univer- been more aggressive in marketing New England, the Mid-Atlantic states fore be more selective," said Giglio. sity benefits because it has a larger the university. "We have increased our and the Midwest" said Buckley. "39 According to Giglio, Fordham has recruitment efforts, and we have been states are represented at Fordham." about a 65% acceptance rate, and this is 1 revamping our publications," said Last year, 52% of the applicants were expected to be lower this year with the Giglio.