Fordham University is a private university in the United States, with three campuses located in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St. John's College, placed in the care of the Society of Jesus shortly thereafter, and has since become an independent institution under a lay Board of Trustees which describes the university as "in the Jesuit tradition."

Enrollment at Fordham University includes nearly 8,000 undergraduate students and 7,000 graduate students spread over three campuses in New York State: Rose Hill in The Bronx, Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and Westchester in West Harrison. The university also participates in educational consortia located in the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom. Fordham awards bachelor's (BA, BFA, and BS), master's, and doctoral degree.

Fordham University is composed of four undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools, including the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service and the Fordham School of Law. The university offers five-year dual-degree BA/BS engineering programs in cooperation with Case Western Reserve University and Columbia University, and a BFA degree program for dance in partnership with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

The university was affiliated with Fordham Preparatory School, a four-year, all-male, college preparatory school, with which it shares its founding. Since legally separating from the university in 1972, "Fordham Prep" moved to its own facilities bordering the northwest corner of the Rose Hill Campus.

History

1841–1900

Fordham University was originally founded as St. John's College in 1841 by the Irish-born Coadjutor Bishop (later Archbishop) of the Diocese of New York, the Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes. The College was the first Catholic institution of higher education in the northeastern United States. Bishop Hughes purchased most of Rose Hill Manor and Estate in Fordham, the Bronx, at a little less than $30,000 for the purpose of establishing St. Joseph's Seminary in September 1840. "Rose Hill" was the name originally given to the site in 1787 by its owner, Robert Watts, a wealthy New York merchant, in honor of his family's eponymous ancestral home in Scotland. The seminary was paired with St. John's College, which opened at Rose Hill with a student body of six on June 21, 1841. The Reverend John McCloskey (later Archbishop of New York, eventually to become the first American Cardinal) was its first president, and the faculty were secular priests and lay instructors. The college went through a succession of four diocesan priests in five years as presidents, including Fr. James Roosevelt Bayley, a distant cousin to Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and nephew to Elizabeth Bayley Seton who was later the first United States citizen by birth to be canonized. In 1845 the seminary church, Our Lady of Mercy, was built while Bishop Hughes convinced a group of Jesuits, including five from St. Mary's College in Kentucky, to staff the new school, and take over the seminary. In 1846 St. John's College received its charter from the New York state legislature, and about three months later the first Jesuits began to arrive. Bishop Hughes deeded the college over, but retained title to the seminary property of about nine acres. In 1847, Fordham's first school in what was then New York City proper opened in Manhattan. This school became the independently chartered College of St. Francis Xavier in 1861. It was also in 1847 that the American poet, Edgar Allan Poe, arrived in the Bronx and began a friendship with the Jesuits that would last throughout his years there. In 1849 he wrote "The Bells", to which some traditions credit the college church bells as the inspiration.

The college's early curriculum options consisted of a junior division requiring four years of study in Latin, Greek, grammar, literature, history, geography, mathematics and religion; and a senior division of three years study in poetry (humanities), rhetoric and philosophy. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, famed commander of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry American Civil War regiment, attended the junior division. An Artium Baccalaureus degree was earned for completion of both, where the junior division requirements were met at the associated preparatory school, or at a transfer student's originating institution. An additional year of philosophy would earn a Magister Artium degree. There was also a "commercial" track, similar to a college of business administration concept of today, which was an alternative to the classical Latin-based curriculum and earned a certificate instead of a diploma. In 1855 the first student dramatic production, Henry IV, was presented. The seminary was closed in 1859, and the property was sold to the Jesuits in 1860 for $40,000.

A Congressionial act creating instruction in military science and tactics at the college level resulted in St. John's College bringing a cadet corps to the campus. Over the course of 1885-1890 a veteran of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, Lt. Herbert C. Squires, built a cadet battalion to a strength of 200, which would provide the formal foundation for the modern ROTC unit at Fordham. The college built a science building in 1886, lending more legitimacy to science in the curriculum. In addition, a three-year bachelor of science degree was created. In 1897 academic regalia for students at commencement was first adopted. The process of consolidating the Westchester towns that would eventually comprise the Bronx began in 1874, which would bring St. John's College within the city limits and culminate in 1898 with incorporation of five boroughs, including the Bronx into New York City.

1901–1950

With the addition in 1905 of a law school and a medical school, the name was changed to Fordham University in 1907 (despite the name of the original college, Fordham has never had any connection with St. John's University). The name Fordham ("ford by the hamlet") refers to the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which the Rose Hill campus is located. This neighborhood was named either as a reference to the colonial settlement that was located near a shallow crossing of the Bronx River, or as a reference to Rev. John Fordham, an Anglican priest.

In 1908, Fordham University Press was established.

In 1912, the university opened a College of Pharmacy, which offered a three-year program in pharmacy and did not require its students to obtain bachelor's degrees until the late 1930s. The College had a mainly Jewish student body, and in recognition of that, students were exempt from the then-required course in Catholic theology. The College's longtime dean, Jacob Diner, was also Jewish.

In 1913 the College of St. Francis Xavier was closed, and various Fordham colleges were opened at the Woolworth Building in Manhattan to fill the void. They were later moved to 302 Broadway.

The university closed its medical school in 1919. Citing a lack of an endowment for the school and reduced general university funds due to the First World War, Fordham found itself unable to finance a high-caliber program and felt compelled to close the school rather than provide anything less.

1951–2000

In 1961, Fordham Law School opened at the new Lincoln Center campus—the first building to open in the Lincoln Square Renewal Project. In 1969, the colleges at 302 Broadway were moved to the new Lowenstein Building on the Lincoln Center campus, and other colleges soon followed. At the Rose Hill Campus, the all-female Thomas More College began instruction in 1964. The campus was now co-ed, even though classes and dorms were not.

In 1967 Bensalem College, an experimental college with no set curriculum or requirements and no grades, was started by then President Leo McLaughlin, S.J. It was conceived and led by poet Elizabeth Sewell. The college was studied by a wide array of educators and reported on by such large-circulation publications of the day as Look, Esquire and the Saturday Review. The school closed in 1974.

In 1969, the board of trustees was reorganized to include a majority of non-clergy members, and officially made the University an independent institution. The College of Pharmacy closed because of declining enrollment in 1972. Fordham College at Rose Hill became coeducational in 1974, as a result of the merger with Thomas More College.

Since its opening in 1968, the undergraduate college in Manhattan has had its name changed from "The Liberal Arts College" to "The College at Lincoln Center" and in 1996 to "Fordham College at Lincoln Center". In 1993, a twenty-story residence hall was added to the campus to house 850 graduate and undergraduate students.

2001–present

Marymount College, an independent women's college founded in 1907 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (R.S.H.M.) was consolidated into Fordham University in July 2002. It had been steeped in financial hardship since the 1970s. Located north of New York City in Tarrytown, New York, the campus was home to a woman's undergraduate college, and a branch of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, as well as extensions of the graduate schools of education, social service, and business administration.

In August 2005, the University announced a multi-year, $1 billion proposed master plan to add of academic, student activities, and dormitory space to the Lincoln Center campus. The development of the campus will begin with the expansion of Quinn Library and the construction of a new Law School building, a new student center, a dormitory, and additional parking. Future phases of the development plan include the construction of new space for Fordham College of Liberal Studies, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Graduate School of Business, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the Graduate School of Education. In 2007, responding to unforeseen objections and concerns from the Upper West Side community, Fordham launched a "neighbors" site designed to answer community concerns about the Lincoln Center campus expansion. The plans for the Lincoln Center campus are part of a university-wide plan to enhance the quality of education at Fordham in an effort to become the prominent and preeminent Catholic institution of higher learning in America. The first part of the strategic plan is entitled Toward 2016, with intent to achieve significant goals by the University's 175th Anniversary. The University pledged to make the construction of a Law School and a science facility as the necessary first steps in that plan

Marymount College awarded degrees to its final undergraduate class in May 2007, after Fordham University announced in 2005 that the college would be phased out. University administration announced that the campus would remain open for Fordham graduate programs in several disciplines.However, in the fall of 2007 the University announced its intention to seek buyers for the Marymount campus and move its programs to less expansive facilities elsewhere in Westchester. University administration stated that the expenses required to support the programs on campus far exceeded their demand. University officials estimate that the revenue gained from the proposed sale would not be greater than the expenses Fordham incurred maintaining and improving the campus since its merger with Marymount College. President Father McShane nonetheless stated that the University's decision was a "painful" one.Fordham then announced it's intention to move the remaining programs from the Marymount campus to a new location at 400 Westchester Avenue in Harrison, New York by Fall 2008. On February 17, 2008, Fordham announced the sale of the campus for $27 million to EF Schools, a chain of private language-instruction schools.

In December 2007, the University established the Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art at its Rose Hill campus. The museum contains more than 200 relics from classical antiquity, ranging from Greek terra cotta vases to Roman marble heads to Etruscan urns. The museum was a gift from William D. Walsh, a 1951 graduate and founding chairman of Sequoia Associates. The museum is located at the William D. Walsh Family Library on the Rose Hill campus. It is the largest collection of its kind in the New York metropolitan area.

In April 2008, Fordham entered into an affiliation with Heythrop College, the Jesuit specialist Philosophy and Theology College of the University of London. Fordham will utilize a large portion of space at the college, which is located near Kensington Square, in central London. The University of London consortium of colleges consists of such institutions as King's College London, University College London, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Fordham will also house its London Dramatic Academy, and College of Business Administration programs at Heythrop as well.

Academics

Fordham University's academic ideals are drawn from its Jesuit influences. The University promotes a Jesuit principle known as cura personalis, which fosters a faculty and administration respect for the individual student and their uniqueness, and the Jesuit principle magis which intends to inspire service and strive for excellence in all aspects of life, even beyond the academic.

Core curriculum

All undergraduate colleges at Fordham share a core curriculum, a distribution of offerings that consists of 17–21 courses (depending on foreign language proficiency) drawn from nine disciplines and/or families of disciplines intended to provide a sound liberal arts education. The specific class or course is not mandated, only each subject. In outline, the core includes:

• One course of English composition / rhetoric and two of literature
• Two courses of Philosophy and two of Theology
• Two courses each in History, Social Sciences, and the Natural Sciences
• One course each in Mathematics and the Fine Arts
• Foreign language up to an advanced level (1 to 4 courses)
• One course each on American Pluralism and Global Studies
• A capstone Senior Seminar in Values and Moral Choices
• A Freshman Seminar

Students are expected to complete the core (in their home school) by the end of sophomore year, with the exception of the Global, Pluralism, and Senior Values courses.

Colleges and schools

Fordham University comprises four undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools on three campuses.

Undergraduate colleges

• Fordham College at Rose Hill (1841)
• College of Business Administration (1920)
• Fordham College of Liberal Studies (1944)
• Fordham College at Lincoln Center (1968)

Graduate schools

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

Libraries

Fordham University libraries own over 2.4 million volumes, subscribe to over 15,500 periodicals and 19,000 electronic journals, and are a depository for United States Government documents. The William D. Walsh Family Library is at the Rose Hill campus; the Gerald M. Quinn Library at the Lincoln Center campus; the new Westchester campus and the Leo T. Kissam Memorial Law Library serves the Law School.

Honor societies and programs

• Matteo Ricci Society: The Matteo Ricci Society is an honor society open to Fordham students who are likely candidates for academic fellowships. Students are invited to join based on academic success and other factors. Faculty assist members in preparing applications for fellowships. It can provide funding for certain approved summer research opportunities and prominent internships

• Honors Study: All four undergraduate colleges at Fordham offer an honors program for matriculated students. Eligible students from any major (with the exception of the BFA degree program in Dance) may be selected.
  • Fordham College of Liberal Studies offers an honors program option tailored specifically for non-traditional students, which is unusual for institutions serving that student population.
  • Specifics of the program differ among the four undergraduate colleges, but the program size is small in each case. Students are selected from the top percentile of each incoming freshmen class, based on their academic and extracurricular achievements. Honors students are required to take specific Honors classes which replace the Core Curriculum. The Honors programs emphasize independent projects under faculty guidance. Successful completion of the program entitles the student to the designation in cursu honorum on the diploma and the transcript.

• National Honor Societies: The University has chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, national honor societies; Alpha Sigma Nu, the national honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities; Beta Gamma Sigma, the national honor society of accredited schools of business; Beta Alpha Psi, the honor society of accounting, and Alpha Sigma Lambda, the national honor society for non-traditional students.
  • There are chapters of the Society of Sigma Xi, a national honorary scientific research organization established to recognize and foster the scientific spirit in American colleges and to provide both stimulus and acknowledgment for independent scientific research; Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society for political science students; Alpha Mu Gamma, the national honor society for foreign languages. Fordham also has chapters of Phi Delta Kappa and Kappa Delta Pi, both honor societies in education.
  • Fordham University has chapters of other honor societies which are major specific.

• Office of Prestigious Fellowships: The University Office of Prestigious Fellowships helps guide student candidates through the various application processes. It has helped successful students compete for a broad range of scholarships and fellowships, including the Truman Scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship to Britain, Fulbright Program, Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, James Madison Fellowship, and Ford Foundation grants, as well as the National Security Education Program (NSEP) and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants. Fordham has been named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the nation’s top-ranked research universities earning among the highest number of Fulbright awards for U.S. students.

Rankings

As of February 2009, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Fordham's undergraduate program 61st, remaining among the Tier 1 national universities. In 2009, BusinessWeek magazine ranked Fordham's College of Business Administration 41st nationally, a drop of 14 spots from the previous year, though U.S. News & World Report ranked the College of Business Administration 71st, up nine spots from 2007. The Washington Monthly rankings, meant as a public-interest focused alternative to the U.S. News rankings, places Fordham at 63rd in the nation, overall.

Fordham University School of Law is a Tier 1 school, ranked 30th in the nation in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. The Graduate School of Social Service is similarly Tier 1 and was ranked 17th nationally in 2008 by U.S. News & World Report, the Graduate School of Education was ranked 58th nationally, and also ranked the College of Business Administration 71st, up nine spots from 2007. Fordham paticipates in the BIMBA program (Beijing International MBA) — the first foreign MBA degree to be approved by the Chinese Government and ranked #1 in China by Fortune Magazine.

While not strictly a "ranking", the editors of Kaplan/Newsweek’s 2008 edition of How to Get Into College Guide included Fordham University as one of the “25 Hottest Schools in America”, with the title "Hottest Catholic School."

Fordham also participates in the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU)'s University and College Accountability Network .

Campuses

Fordham University attracts students from around the world, and at the turn of the 21st century had registered students from approximately 90 countries in addition to every US state and territory. To accommodate this student body, the university has two residential campuses: Rose Hill in the Bronx and Lincoln Center in Manhattan. The University also maintains programs at the Westchester campus in West Harrison, a biological field station in Armonk, New York and participates in cosortia at two international locations: The Beijing International MBA (BIMBA) in Beijing, China, and the London in the United Kingdom, home to the London Drama Academy.

The undergraduate Fordham College of Liberal Studies holds classes on all three New York campuses, utilizing the same faculty and curriculum as the other colleges in the University. In addition, the flexibility of multiple campuses facilitates options for both full-time and part-time study and unconventional scheduling, in order to accommodate students who are employed full-time or otherwise unable to take advantage of the offerings at Fordham's other, more centralized, undergraduate colleges.

Fordham is among the largest of the 28 member institutions in the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, and is home to a large Jesuit community of the New York Province.

Rose Hill

Rose Hill campus, established in 1841, is home to the undergraduate Fordham College at Rose Hill, the College of Business Administration, and a portion of the Fordham College of Liberal Studies as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School of Religion & Religious Education. Located on in the north Bronx, it is among the largest "open space campuses" in New York City. The campus is bordered by the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and "Little Italy of the Bronx" on Arthur Avenue. Rose Hill's traditional collegiate Gothic architecture, cobblestone streets, and green expanses of lawn have been used as settings in a number of feature films over the years. Rose Hill is also home to the University Church, which was built in 1845 as a seminary chapel and parish church for surrounding farms. The gothic-style church is an official New York City landmark and contains the original altar from Old St. Patrick's Cathedral along with stained glass windows first intended as a gift by Louis-Philippe of France for the cathedral. Among the 15 campus dormitories are Fordham's three residential colleges: O'Hare Hall, Tierney Hall, and Queen's Court (the last, with its notable Bishop's Lounge, dates back to the days of St. John's College). Finlay Hall, now an upperclassman dormitory, was built in 1905 as home to the (since defunct) medical school, and later was home to the chemistry department for 47 years, until 1968. Another dormitory, Walsh Hall, was built facing the street as a condition of the loan Fordham received 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 campus instead of the interior of the campus. Walsh Hall was formerly known simply as 555 due to its address: 555 E.191st Street. The campus is served by the Fordham station of the Metro-North Railroad (the tracks run along the boundary fence), with a southern terminus at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. Public transit buses stop adjacent to campus exits and New York City Subway stations are within walking distance. The University also provides a "Ram Van" shuttle service among the three main campuses. About 6,284 undergraduates and graduates attend the Rose Hill campus, with 3,143 in residence.

Lincoln Center

The Lincoln Center campus, created by Robert Moses in 1961 as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project", This is NOT the same as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, though both the campus and the performing arts center were both part of the renewal project. is home to the undergraduate Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a portion of Fordham College of Liberal Studies, as well as the School of Law, the Graduate School of Business Administration, the Graduate School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Service. The campus 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, Carnegie Hall, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, Tiffany & Co., Lord & Taylor, F.A.O. Schwartz and other famous Fifth Avenue retailers, Broadway, and Columbus Circle. The campus is served by public transit bus stops at the campus entrances, and by the New York City Subway at 59th Street–Columbus Circle station. The University also provides a "Ram Van" shuttle service among its three campuses.

About 8,000 undergraduate, graduate, professional, and doctoral students study at the Lincoln Center campus, where about 940 live in apartment-style housing. There are almost 1,800 undergraduates enrolled in Fordham College At Lincoln Center, with an additional 300 undergraduates in the Fordham College of Liberal Studies (at this campus), and the remainder comprise the graduate population. The Lincoln Center campus currently consists of the Leon Lowenstein Building, McMahon Hall dormitory, Gerald M. Quinn Library, and Fordham School of Law. Fordham offices are also housed at 33 W. 60th St and 888 W. 57th St. The Lincoln Center campus also has two outdoor basketball and tennis courts.

There are two open, grassy plazas at the Lincoln Center Campus, built over the Quinn Library, one level up from the street. The larger plaza was historically known as Robert Moses Plaza and once hosted a bust of its namesake on a barren cement landscape (lawns have since been added), and the smaller one is known as St. Peter's Garden. A memorial to Fordham students and alumni who died on 9/11 stands in St. Peter's Garden. According to Fordham's expansion plan, Robert Moses Plaza may be razed to make way for several new buildings.

Westchester

The University moved Fordham College of Liberal Studies (Westchester Division), graduate schools of Business Administration, Education, Social Service, and Religion and Religious Education, from the former Marymount campus to 400 Westchester Avenue, in West Harrison, New York. The first classes were scheduled for fall, 2008.

The new campus includes a three-story, building on landscaped with a stream and pond. Fordham signed a 20-year lease for the new campus. The facilities include 26 newly designed classrooms featuring technological amenities such as "smart boards", teleconferencing capabilities, and newly installed seating and learning areas.

In addition, faculty offices and administrative support space, a library resource center, a food service facility, and meeting areas both indoor and outdoor for student sessions are available. Over $8 million was spent in renovation to provide the University with green building technology, including the design of academic facilities surrounding a large central courtyard.

This campus is served by the White Plains station of the Metro-North Railroad, approximately away in the county seat of White Plains, with a southern terminus at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. The White Plains station and the campus are both served by the Westchester County Bus System ("The Bee-Line"). In addition, the University offers a "Ram-Van" shuttle among the three campuses. Westchester County Airport is the closest to this campus, at a drive of approximately .

Louis Calder Center

The Louis Calder Center is Fordham's biological field station for ecological research and environmental education. Located north of New York City in Armonk, New York, the station consists of forested with a lake and 19 buildings, which are used for laboratory and office space, educational programs, equipment storage, and residences. The station's state-of-the-art equipment, research library, greenhouses, and housing are available for research and educational programs for students, faculty, and visiting scientists.

Beijing, People's Republic of China

The Beijing International MBA Program (BiMBA) was a joint venture between a consortium of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States and Peking University. Fordham University granted the degrees and managed its programs with the China Center for Economic Research (CCER). Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium has been the degree granting institution for BiMBA since 2008, though Fordham maintains a relationship. BiMBA was founded in 1998 and is located on the campus of Peking University in Beijing, People's Republic of China. BiMBA enrolls over 400 students a year in traditional part-time and full-time MBA programs, and in Executive MBA (EMBA) programs. It offers the first foreign MBA degree to be approved by the Chinese government, and was ranked number 1 in China by Fortune Magazine.

London Center (Centre), United Kingdom

Since the spring of 2009 Fordham has affiliated with [[Heythrop College], the Jesuit specialist Philosophy and Theology College of the University of London. This created a base in the city's Kensington Square for Fordham’s programs, which include the London Dramatic Academy, as well as a spring semester and two summer College of Business Administration programs.

Student activities

Fordham University offers campus-based and university-wide student activities programs. The following are a sampling:

Athletics

The Fordham varsity sports teams are known as the "Rams." Their colors are maroon and white.

The University supports 22 men's and women's varsity teams and a number of club teams, plus a significant intramural sports program. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference in all sports except football. In football, the Rams play in the Patriot League of NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The Rams were the 2002 Patriot League co-champions, and captured the 2007 Patriot League title outright.

Fordham athletics gained early fame for college football in the beginning of the 20th century, particularly with the success of the famous "Seven Blocks of Granite", which, for the 1936 line, included Vince Lombardi, who later became perhaps the most famous coach in professional football. In addition, the University launched the careers of dozens of professional baseball players, including a Hall of Fame inductee, Frankie Frisch, known by the further-alliterative nickname, "The Fordham Flash."