Join Us For The Annual Fall McGinley Lecture

This promises to be a great event, and an incredible oppurtunity to learn more about the future of interfaith dialogue.

Fordham vs. Georgetown

USG is currently looking into free/low-cost transportation options for students to go down to the Georgetown football game.  If you are interested please email the USG Director of Athletics Affairs at <<jkorevec@fordham.edu>>.  We need to see if there is enough interest in going to the game (this Saturday) before making transportation reservations (so respond soon!).

The time commitment would be for the entire day (returning the evening after the game).  Let us know if you are interested.

Thanksgiving Community Service Opportunity

Join USG to extend the Holiday spirit

Support Free Speech and Expression at Rose Hill

Below is a link to the complete report being presented to Fordham on behalf of the student body for free speech on campus along with a letter from the President of USG:

USG Commission on Speech & Expression-Maroon Square Report*

My fellow students,

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.  For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”  ~John F. Kennedy

These moving words speak volumes to the current status of free speech at Fordham and throughout the country. On college campuses across the nation, the right to free speech and the ability to openly demonstrate at institutions of higher learning is a topic of great concern. In the time that I have spent at Fordham University, the academic harms of limited speech or censorship have made national headlines, particularly with regard to lectures and student protests. From Columbia University’s controversial decision to invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak, to Boston College’s choice to cancel a lecture by William Ayers, and even Fordham’s decision to allow Norman Finkelstein to speak at Lincoln Center, institutions of higher learning have responded in their own unique ways to support or hinder open discourse.

Students on our campus have a rich and proud history of open expression as evidenced by the number of protests that take place both at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center every year. However this history of public demonstration (and the procedures that govern it) is also not without problems, areas of concern, and opportunities for positive change.  Our community is also no stranger to the issues that have arisen in the past surrounding this process and the administrative reactions that the failure to adhere to the demonstration policies outlined in the Student Handbook can illicit.

Have we as students grown complacent with the current processes and policies that oversee free speech at Fordham? I for one do not believe we have, but now is the time for the student body to show that we are prepared to do more than just claim that we are entitled to something better and instead begin the difficult but important process of working with the administration to improve the quality of life, the diversity of opinion, and the climate of open exchange here at Fordham University.

As a senator last year, I served as Chairman the United Student Government Commission on Speech and Expression, a group of 5 students who were charged with the task of addressing our community’s needs with specific regard to the right of free and open expression on campus. When Mike and I were elected last spring, we campaigned on a platform that promised that the work of this commission would continue and that we would make improving free speech and the vibrancy of intellectual exchange at Rose Hill one of our primary goals. After many months of researching previous issues that students have had with demonstrations on campus, a detailed assessment of the changes that we feel would benefit the University community, and extensive planning for a potential solution, I am proud to say that this group has finalized its work and that USG is now ready to start the process of negotiating with the administration in the spirit of cooperation. Our ultimate goal and hope is that we will be granted approval of a designated space on campus for students to demonstrate, perform, stage displays, express themselves, and exercise their right to free speech, with specific exemptions from the current demonstration policy. We have modeled this proposed space off of a similarly successful area at Georgetown Univeristy and the practices of Santa Clara University—we call it Maroon Square and firmly believe that its existence at Rose Hill will not only alleviate many of the tensions that students and organizations presently experience with the current demonstration policy, but will also set Fordham above many of its peer and aspirant schools, affirming its commitment to the Jesuit tradition of tolerance for a wide diversity of ideas and opinions.

On November 11^th, 2009-I will officially present the case for this project before the Student Life Council which will meet at 2:30pm. If this is an issue that concerns you and if you would like to see change in this area, then I ask that you join me on that day, be present in attendance, and let your presence speak in support of this important cause.

I believe truly, that there is intellectual value in exchanging ideas, finding compromise, exposing hypocrisy, and bringing ideologies that thrive in the shadows of our society, out into the light of public exchange and academic criticism. I know it is a difficult process, but it is also one that the honest pursuit of knowledge and truth—the mission that drives each of our collegiate studies—calls upon us to engage in. I look forward to working with the administration in the pursuit of this goal and deeply appreciate your support in this effort.

Thank you,

John

—

John Tully Gordon

Executive President, United Student Government

Fordham University at Rose Hill

* if you require a non-.docx file please E-mail John @ JohnTullyGordon@gmail.com

Up ‘Til Dawn, Some Letter-Writing, and a Free Wii

United Student Government is proud to support UP TIL’ DAWN 3^rd Annual Letter Writing Party, a fun-filled fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital(*). This is a collaborative Fordham effort (students, faculty, and administration), which will take place on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16^th, 20009 from 6PM to MIDNIGHT in the RAMSKELLER.

That night, students will send out pre-printed fundraising letters to family, friends, etc. and the whole event will be a huge party:

Student comedy, singing, and dancing groups will perform (Fordham Flava, The B-Sides, The Ramblers, Fordham University Pep Band, Fordham Jazz Collective, and the Fordham Improv. Group) and FREE massages for all attendees. There will also be a DJ and plenty of prize giveaways, including a Ninetnedo Wii and gift certificates to many of the Arthur Avenue Restaurants. CAB will be funding professional comedian, Michael Kent, as well.

(*) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is one of the world’s premiere centers for research and treatment of catastrophic diseases in children, primarily in pediatric cancers. It is the first institution established for the sole purpose of conducting basic and clinical research into catastrophic childhood diseases. St. Jude is the ONLY pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments not covered by insurance and families without insurance are never asked to pay.

WHO: All students, faculty, administration and staff!

WHAT: Fundraising program on Fordham’s campus to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

WHEN: Monday, November 16th 2009 (6:00 PM – midnight)

WHERE: The Ramskellar

WHY: To raise awareness and funds for the St. Jude cause and children to unite the Fordham campus under a common cause of community and service…. But most of all TO HAVE FUN!

 

Please visit their facebook event for details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161387024298&ref=ts

This is a great cause and we hope to see everyone there!