Rose Hill is kind of like a foreign country. Some students could even study abroad there. It's far, remote, and on a recent visit I even questioned whether they accepted American currency at a local grocery store. Like most normal people with good judgment, you probably haven't been to Rose Hill and are understandably hesitant to take the Ram Van uptown. Since I had a free Ram Van pass, I decided to head over. After a weekend at Fordham's Bronx campus, I heard tons of criticism about its younger liberal sibling, Lincoln Center. I'd like to respond to some of it; and as I do so, you can use this as your unofficial guide to the "boogie-down Bronx" campus. So hide your wallets, lower your SAT scores, and pop your collars-cause we're going to Rose Hill in the next 700 words.
During my stay, I had some good pizza near a White Castle (the landmark equivalent to our...Time Warner building?) and I went to some random parties where there was more beer on the floor than in the actual keg. Upon being introduced to students as "my hot friend from Lincoln Center", one of the Rose Hillians responded with "We're better. You Lincoln Center people suck". I thought to myself, "Yes, you have it pretty sweet here in the ghetto. You're awesome, and so is your girlfriend wearing sweatpants to a party with her matching freshman 15." Luckily I was given a Gatorade bottle with some rum in it to keep me from sobering up to my unfortunate uptown reality.
Real Estate: Those Rose Hill kids brag about their awesome campus with lots of greenery, including Eddie's Parade-a big lawn to lay out on and play football. They look down on Lincoln Center because it consists of two massive cement buildings that we call a campus.
It's too bad we don't have a huge amount of land nearby with grass, trees, ponds, and baseball fields to walk over to on a nice day. The city of New York should really do something about that.
Safety First: A Rose Hill student's back-to-school shopping list:
-Printer ink -- Check -Ethernet cord -- Check -Extra long fitted sheets -- Check -Trapper Keeper -- Why not?!! -Nightstick and pepper spray, just in case another Friday night riot erupts -- Double Check
Nightlife: The Hudson: Lincoln Center Mugz's: Rose Hill Enjoy the jukebox, buddy...
Diversity: They argue that they're just as diverse as our campus here at Lincoln Center. They're right; Rose Hill is diverse, too. It's not just a campus full of Abercrombie-clad white kids. This girl I saw the other day at Rose Hill, she was wearing a shirt from American Eagle.
She had to sit in the back of the cafeteria.
School Spirit: They think that there's no campus unity at Lincoln Center, and that we lack school spirit and a college atmosphere.
College? Of course not. Lincoln Park is empty on Wednesday nights, without a college kid in sight singing along to the The Killers while reaching for another dollar...
Campus unity? I've sat through 8 million versions of Shakespeare and a billion plays about nothing-just blank walls, leftover bed sheets, and horrible lighting. Sure, my plus one was Jim Beam, but I was also sitting on the floor... for three hours... without intermission. Apparently, giving a 15-minute breather, or chance to escape, wasn't in the director's vision. Now THAT, my friend, is campus unity.
Smart Alecs: The students at Rose Hill insist that they do much better in their classes than us, and that they're smarter and more challenged. It's true; in a Rose Hill Senior-Lit. class, last semester, the students wrote wonderful book reports on "The Giver."
Fordham History 101: Rose Hill students say they have so much Fordham awareness and they pride themselves on the history of their campus.
Yes, every drunk girl I met at one of your local bars was talking about how magenta is Fordham's original school color, and how Fordham beat Harvard in a baseball game back in the 1800s. She definitely wasn't slurring, "Do you think I'm pretty?!?" while chugging a Natty Light.
Social Scene: Are you really going to try and argue that your social scene can beat ours here in Manhattan? If there's so much to do up there in the Bronx, then why is it that once a keg drops at some apartment, the crowd is more eager and desperate to get in than the newcomers waiting in line at Immigration.
Food Court:
Lincoln Center's cafeteria sucks, let's not kid ourselves. It's not fair; Rose Hill's cafeteria has endless wraps, stale cookies, and French fries.
I'm almost jealous, but I get over it by the time I finish my dinner at Whole Foods.
Rose Hill vs. Lincoln Center: What's the verdict?
I say we stop the Olsen-like comparisons and put an end to the Red Sox/Yankees-like rivalry. Let's just play another round of beer pong, wear our "Ram Fan" T-shirts with pride, and most importantly, thank God that we're not Marymount.
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