Wikipedia

Fordham University

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Anskykids (talk | contribs) at 02:12, 9 March 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fordham University is a prestigious co-educational private university in New York City. Founded in 1841 as St. John's College, Fordham University is currently one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

Fordham University
Seal of Fordham University
Latin: Universitas Fordhamensis
MottoSapientia et Doctrina
(Wisdom and Learning)
TypePrivate
Established1841 (as St. John's College)
PresidentJoseph M. McShane, S.J.
Undergraduates8,270
Postgraduates7,579 (1,652 law)
Location
New York
,
NY
,
USA
CampusUrban
AthleticsNCAA Division I
Colors Maroon and White
MascotRam File:Fordham University mascot.gif
Websitewww.fordham.edu

The University has 11 schools spread out on 3 campuses in New York City. It's main campus, Rose Hill, is in the Bronx. The Lincoln Center Campus, in Manhattan, houses the law school, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Service, the Graduate School of Business Administration, and an undergraduate college. It has a third all-female undergraduate school, Marymount, in the campus at Tarrytown, New York. Marymount College will be phased out in 2007; however the campus will remain active, supporting numerous programs and graduate schools. The University also has a biological field station, the Louis Calder Center, in Armonk, N.Y. and a Graduate School of Business in Beijing, China.

Fordham is officially an independent institution, but strongly embraces its Jesuit heritage. "For most students, the Roman Catholic influence is positive," one reads in The Fiske Guide to Colleges 1998, "and many students say that the Jesuit tradition is the school's best attribute." Fordham is listed as one of the top one hundred universities in the United States by U.S. News and World Report. Fordham University School of Law is a top tier law school and was ranked 27 in the 2005 US News and World Report. It started in 1905 in downtown Manhattan, and moved eventually to Lincoln Center in the 1960s, thanks to, in part, Robert Moses.

In 2003, Fordham's enrollment included more than 8,000 undergraduate students and more than 7,000 graduate students. Fordham awards bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.

Fordham University Libraries own more than 2,000,000 volumes and subscribes to over 15,500 periodicals and 19,000 electronic journals and is a depository for United States Government documents. Fordham University Libraries own many special collections of rare books and manuscripts covering a variety of subjects including Americana, Jesuitica, the French Revolution, and Criminology. The library also provides access to over 60,000 electronic books. Fordham University also owns and operates a publishing house, Fordham University Press.


History

 
The Administration Building at the Rose Hill Campus.

Fordham University was founded by the Irish-born, Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes (nicknamed "Dagger John"), Archbishop of New York, as Saint John’s College in 1841, and was the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the northeastern United States. The Most Reverend Hughes purchased the old Rose Hill manor for $30,000 for the purpose of establishing the school. St. John's College was opened with six students on June 24, 1841. The Reverend John McCloskey (afterward the archbishop of New York and first American cardinal) was its president, and its faculty was secular priests and lay instructors. The college was paired with a seminary, St. Joseph's, which had been founded in 1839 and which was in charge of Italian Lazarists (also known as Vincentians), with the Reverend Dr. Felix Villanis at its head.

The school was granted its charter to give degrees in theology, arts, law, and medicine, April 10, 1846, by the New York state legislature. Also in 1846, Bishop Hughes recruited five Jesuits from St. Mary's College in Kentucky and other communities, and the Society of Jesus then assumed the administration of the College, while St. Joseph's Seminary was moved and went on to have its own, indepedent history.

In 1907 the name was changed to Fordham University (despite the original name of the school, Fordham has never had any connection with St. John's University, under the care, coincidentally, of the Vincentians). The name Fordham ("village by the ford") refers to the neighborhood of the Bronx in which what is known as the Rose Hill campus of Fordham exists. This neighborhood was named either as a reference to the original settlement that was located near a shallow crossing of the Harlem River (this crossing was the only entry to Manhattan from the north until 1693) or as a reference to Rev. John Fordham, an Anglican priest. The school's motto - Sapientia et doctrina - translates to "wisdom and learning."

Today, parts of the original school exist: the "Queen's Court" complex of three dormitories and the nave of the nearby university chapel are the original buildings of the college and seminary, and the central portion of the administration building is the original manor house for the Rose Hill farm

Organization

Fordham University is organized into eleven schools, six graduate and professional schools and five undergraduate schools. They reside on the two major campuses in New York City (Rose Hill and Lincoln Center) and the two in Westchester county (Marymount and the Louis Calder Center).

 
Keating Hall with Eddie's Parade Ground in the foreground, Rose Hill

Undergraduate schools:

Graduate schools:

  • Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1916)
  • The Graduate School of Business Administration (1969)
  • The Graduate School of Education (1916)
  • The Fordham University School of Law (1905)
  • The Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (1969)
  • The Graduate School of Social Service (1916)

Campuses

Rose Hill, Fordham's original campus, was established in 1841. Located on 85 magnificent acres in the north Bronx, adjacent to the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo, Rose Hill is the largest "green campus" in New York City. Rose Hill's traditional collegiate Gothic architecture, cobble-stone streets and green expanses of lawn have been used as settings in a number of feature films over the years.[[Image:Walsh Family Library at Fordham University, Rose Hill.jpg]

The Fordham campus at Lincoln Center, established in 1961, occupies the area from West 60th Street to West 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, in the cultural heart of Manhattan. Across the street is one of the world's great cultural centers, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; nearby are Central Park, Broadway, and Rockefeller Center.

The campus at Marymount College of Fordham University features the Suburban setting, Large town (10,000 - 49,999) and Residential campus. It is located 25 miles from New York City.

Sports

The Fordham varsity sports teams all use the nickname "Rams." Their colors are maroon and white. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic Ten Conference in all sports except football. In football, the Rams play in the Patriot League of NCAA Division I-AA, and were champions of that league in 2003.

In 1936 and 1937, the Fordham football team was renowned for its offensive line, nicknamed the "Seven Blocks of Granite," which included Vince Lombardi and Alex Wojciechowicz. In 1937, the team went undefeated and was ranked number three nationally.

Coffey Field is named after John Coffey, a former baseball coach at the university.

Notable alumni

Trivia

 
Fisherman statue at Lincoln Center campus
  • Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Bells was inspired by the ringing of the bells of the University Church. His home, now located in Poe Park not far from the school, once stood on Poe Street, which is even closer, and he is known to have been friendly with the jesuits with whom he often dined.
  • Rev. William O'Malley, a Jesuit and professor at Fordham, played Father Dyer in "The Exorcist." In addition, scenes from the film were shot on Fordham's campus, including the language lab scene which was filmed in Keating Hall.
  • The bell from the Japanese aircraft carrier Junyo was given to Fordham and is called "The Victory Bell" which is rung by each Fordham player after victorious home football games. A small group of students rang the bell on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in honor of the war dead.
  • One of Fordham's dormitory buildings, Walsh Hall, was built facing the street as a condition of the loan Fordham recieved from New York City. If Fordham had defaulted on the loan, the city would have converted it into a housing project, however this did not occur and the building's entrance still confusingly faces the street on the edge of the Rose Hill campus instead of the interior of the campus.
  • The Lincoln Center Campus was built on the site of a neighborhood torn down using eminent domain for slum clearing. Just prior to that neighborhood being torn down to build Fordham's Lincoln Center Campus, it was used to film West Side Story.
  • The Rose Hill Gym is the nation's oldest gym still in use at the NCAA Division I level.

Movies (at least partially) filmed at Fordham

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fordham_University&oldid=42904873"