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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 . The University has 11 schools spread out on 3 campuses in and around New York City. Its main campus, Rose Hill, is in the Bronx and is home to the undergraduate Fordham College and the College of Business Administration. 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 the undergraduate Fordham College at Lincoln Center. It has an all-female undergraduate school, Marymount , at 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. In addition, the undergraduate Fordham College of Liberal Studies holds classes on all three campuses, providing unconventional scheduling and the flexibility of multiple campuses in order to accomodate students who are employed full-time, or otherwise unable to take advantage of the offerings at the other undergraduate schools. The University also has a 113-acre 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 seventy national 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 32 in the 2006 '' U.S. News And World Report '' Law School Rankings . Fordham Law is now the 15th most selective law school in the United States. 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 Student s. Fordham awards Bachelor's , Master's , and Doctoral Degree s. HISTORY Fordham University was founded by the Irish-born, Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes (the nickname "Dagger John" was inspired by the way the Cross he always incribed next to his signature appeard to some), Archbishop Of New York , as Saint John’s College in 1841 , and was the first Catholic institution of Higher Education 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 was in the charge of Italian Lazarist s (also known as Vincentians), with the Reverend Dr. Felix Villanis at its head. The school received its Charter to grant degrees in Theology , Arts , Law , and Medicine , April 10, 1846 , by the New York State Legislature . Also in 1846, Bishop Hughes had convinced a group of Jesuits working in Kentucky to move to New York and staff his new school. But part of the agreement between Hughes and the Jesuits was that they would also open a school in what was then the city proper, and they lost little time in doing so. In September of 1847 the first school of Fordham in Manhattan opened its doors on the Lower East Side of the city, on Elizabeth and Walker Streets, across the street from the border of the notorious " Five Points " neighborhood. A devastating fire five months later forced the new school to move to the basement of St. James Catholic Church to finish its first year of operation. From 1848 to 1850 the school operated out of rented space on Third Avenue in the East Village , until its first permanent home was constructed on West 15th Street, just off of Sixth Avenue. In 1861 this school, now called the College of St. Francis Xavier, was granted its own charter and became an independent institution, although many ties remained between the Jesuits of Fordham and those of Xavier. With the addition of a medical school in the late 1800's and a law school in 1905 the name was changed to Fordham University in 1907 (despite the original name of the school, Fordham has never had any connection with St. John's University ). 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 Bronx River , or as a reference to Rev. John Fordham, an Anglican priest. In 1913 the decision was made to close the College of St. Francis Xavier-- though leaving the associated Jesuit Xavier High School intact--and Fordham began opening schools in Manhattan once again, then at the Woolworth Building in the Financial District (the tallest building in the world at the time). Due to the ornate lobby of this skyscraper, the students soon began referring to it as the "marble campus" of Fordham in contrast to the rural nature of the Rose Hill campus. Various colleges flourished at the Woolworth Building over the years, including Fordham College–Manhattan Division, the College of Business Administration, and the Undergraduate School of Education. In the midst of World War II , Fordham moved its schools to a new location a few blocks north of City Hall at 302 Broadway . In the years following World War II, Fordham in Manhattan flourished, and the University was soon looking for a larger space to house its Manhattan schools. Fordham's great opportunity came in the mid-1950s when it was invited to be part of the Lincoln Square Renewal Project which sought to replace substandard housing on the city's west side with a new performing arts complex that would become known as Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts . Fordham was the first of the city's institutions involved in the project to fully sign on, purchasing most of the property from West 60th Street to West 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Part of the opening sequence of the movie West Side Story (the story was set in the neighborhood) was filmed on Fordham's property before construction began, and in 1961 Fordham's Law School was the first building to open in the Lincoln Square Renewal Project. Later the Metropolitan Opera , the New York Philharmonic , the New York City Ballet , and the Juilliard School would join Fordham in the neighborhood as part of this project. As work on Fordham's Leon Lowenstein Building progressed, the University decided to phase out the various undergraduate colleges it conducted at 302 Broadway and replace them with a new school, "The Liberal Arts College." In January of 1969, its second semester of operation, the new college moved into its permanent home in the Lowenstein Building at the Lincoln Center campus. Since its opening in 1968 , the school's name has 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 850-bed residence hall was added to the campus, along with other campus improvements. Over the last thirty-five years the college has had a remarkable record of achievement, including alumni who have gone on to outstanding careers as stars of stage and screen, as writers and producers, as financial and business leaders, as practitioners of law and medicine, and as political and civic leaders. Marymount College , an independent women's college founded in 1907 by the Religious Of The Sacred Heart Of Mary (R.S.H.M.), steeped in financial hardship for over two decades, was consolidated into Fordham University in December of 2000 . In October of 2005 , the University's Board of Trustees declared that the Marymount College would be phased out of the Institution by June 2007. The campus at Tarrytown , instead, will become home to Fordham's Graduate School of Religious Education and no longer an undergraduate college. Officials cited financial infeasibility as the cause of the school’s elimination. 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). Undergraduate schools:
Graduate schools:
CAMPUSES Fordham residential campuses are at Rose Hill in the Bronx, Lincoln Center in Manhattan and Tarrytown in Weschester County, along with a biological field station in Armonk, New York and a Graduate School of business in Beijing, China. The University's Ram Van service provides transportation between the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Marymount campuses. Rose Hill (Bronx) Rose Hill, Fordham's original campus, was established in 1841 . Located on 85 magnificent acres in the north Bronx , it is among the largest "green campuses" in New York City (only Wagner College and the City University Of New York campus of the College Of Staten Island are larger). The campus is bordered by the New York Botanical Garden , the Bronx Zoo , and the famous "Little Italy of the Bronx" on Arthur Avenue . 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. Rose Hill is also home to Fordham's three '' Residential Colleges ''; O'Hare Hall, Tierney Hall, and Queen's Court with its famous Bishop's Lounge. About 6,284 undergraduates and graduates attend, with 3,143 in residence. Lincoln Center (Manhattan) 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 Columbus Circle . Located on 8 landscaped acres, about 8,000 professional and undergraduate students attend, with approximately 853 in residence in apartment-style housing. The Lincoln Center Campus currently consists of Lowenstein Hall, the Law School Building, the Quinn Library and McMahon Hall dormitory. There are plans to add 2.378 million square feet to the campus including a new student center, library, law school building, classroom/office space and two dormitories all centered on a 1.5 acre plaza. Marymount (Tarrytown) The campus at The 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 . Louis J. Calder Center The Louis J. Calder Center is the home to a biological field station located on an 113-acre field station with a 10 acre lake and laboratories. The Beijing Campus Founded in 1998, it is the site of The Beijing International MBA Program(MiMBA). Over 400 students are enrolled in MBA and EMBA programs. LIBRARIES Fordham University's main library is The Walsh Family Library , which opened in 1997 , and is located at the Rose Hill campus. In its 2004 edition of ''The Best 351 Colleges'', the Princeton Review ranked Fordham’s William D. Walsh Family Library fifth in the country. The Gerald M. Quinn Library at Lincoln Center, The Fordham Law School Library and the Gloria Laines Library in Marymount are Fordham's other libraries. Fordham University Libraries own more than 2 million volumes, subscribe to more than 15,000 periodicals, and are a depository for United States government documents. In addition, Fordham provides access to more than 20,000 full-text books online, 19,000 online journals, and 44,000 online United States government documents. The libraries also own many special collections of rare books and manuscripts covering a variety of subjects including Americana , Jesuitica , the French Revolution , and Criminology . FORDHAM TRADITION The Great Seal of Fordham University bears the coat of arms of the , Universitas Fordhamensis, and year of foundation. {Link without Title} The ram evolved into Fordham's mascot and symbol from a slightly vulgar cheer that Fordham fans sang during a 1893 football game against the Military Academy at West Point . The students begans cheering "One-damn, two-damn, three-damn...Fordham!" The song was an instant hit but "damn" was sanitized to "Ram" to conform to the university's image (Schroth 2002:107). The "Victory Bell", which hangs outside the Rose Hill Gym, is from the Japanese Aircraft Carrier Junyo . According to the plaque below the bell, it was recovered near Saipan where it was "silenced by an aerial Bomb." It was given to Fordham as a gift by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz "as a Memorial to Our Dear Young Dead of World War II." It was blessed by Cardinal Spellman , and "was first rung at Fordham by the President of the United States, the Honorable Harry S. Truman on May 11 , 1946 , the Charter Centenary of the University." It is rung by each Fordham senior player after victorious home football games and its ringing also marks the start of the commencement ceremonies each May. A small group of students rang the bell on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in honor of the war dead. Fordham's School Song is "Alma Mater Fordham": O Alma Mater Fordham, How mighty is thy power to link our hearts to thee in love that grows with every hour. Thy winding elms, Thy hallowed halls. O Fordham alma Mater, what mem'ries each recalls. O Alma Mater Fordham while yet thy life blood starts Shined by thy sacred image within thy hearts of hearts. And in the years That ought to be. In the years that are to be may life and live be true to me. O Fordham alma Mater, as I am true to thee. UNIVERSITY SONGS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "http://wwwfordhamedu//Media/RamMusic/FordhamRam(Band)mp3"The" class="copylinks" target="_blank">Ram", instrumental, as played by the University Band |
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| "http://wwwfordhamedu/Media/RamMusic/FordhamAlmaMatermp3"Fordham," class="copylinks" target="_blank">Alma Mater" |
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| "http://wwwfordhamedu//Media/RamMusic/Fordhammarchingsongmp3"Fordham" class="copylinks" target="_blank">Marching Song", The Fordham March |