Fordham’s “Master Plan” for expansion was certified by the City Planning Commission on Nov. 17, and the school has begun the seven-month-long Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process, according to Brian J. Byrne, vice president of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC). The plan aims to make the University more aesthetically pleasing and to provide facilities to accomodate an increased number of students.
The university held an informational presentation to the local Community Board on Nov. 19 in the 12th floor lounge, addressing a standing-room-only audience. The project is aimed for completion by 2032.
The number of students who enroll at FCLC has steadily increased in recent years.
“This past year, the Admission Office received a record number of applications, exceeding 23,000 for the first time,” said Patricia Peek, associate director of admissions. She continued, “At this time, the university has the capacity to grow the enrollment.”
Concerns about space, however, are well understood by campus administration and those involved in the expansion project.
“Conditions are extremely tight,” said Donald Clinton of Cooper Robertson and Partners architecture and planning, who presented the visuals at the presentation. “This is a project we have been working on for a long time,” Clinton said. He said the campus has been “eclipsed by growth” and that there is a “significant need” for additional space, as the campus was initially built to suit about 3,500 students and now serves over 8,000, with an estimated future population of over 10,000.
“A lot of what we’re proposing to do right now in the early stages of the Plan is to play catch-up,” Byrne said. “Clearly we’re a very crowded campus, and we want to improve overall facilities. Space is our final frontier. There are so many things we can’t provide, not because we don’t want to but because we don’t have the space to put them.”
The plan is to maximize the space on the FCLC grounds while still keeping the campus bound to the super block between 60th and 62nd Streets and Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.
The Master Plan expansion project will begin with a new building for the Law School that includes a dormitory. This first building in the Plan has been designed by the “internationally recognized” architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, LLP, to be “distinctive, yet respectful to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,” according to Byrne. Clinton called the new Law School a “placeholder design,” something that will be a focal point of the new look of the campus. Byrne said the construction of this building would give the Lincoln Center campus both academic and residential space at the same time, with nine stories of academic space and an additional 13 stories rising from the center of the Law School to serve as a dormitory. This dorm, says Byrne, will be set up much like O’Hare Hall on the Rose Hill campus, with single and double rooms attached by semi-private bathrooms. As reported by The Observer, the school plans to use this space primarily for freshmen students. Fordham plans to include more lounge space in this residence hall to “foster a sense of community.”
The Law School, which is the oldest building on the campus, “will ultimately go away,” Clinton said. “Fordham will keep [the existing Law School] building during the course of several decades of construction as a building for swing space” and will move some of the professional schools into that building until they have space of their own.
Later stages of the project include beautifying the existing structures of the Lincoln Center campus. Clinton called the long concrete wall along 60th Street “something that we have tried to address in the plan and make changes to” and explained that large windows would ultimately be cut into the wall, exposing dance and rehearsal spaces—something he called an “interesting” use of space.
Clinton said Quinn Library, “which is today entirely under [the Plaza], would gain some ground for space above [ground].” Luke Villapaz, FCLC ’11, is one of many students who is happy with this decision. He called the library’s current configuration “cavernous,” comparing it to “the temporary bat cave in ‘The Dark Knight.’”
Clinton said that the Leon Lowenstein building, at the end of the expansion, would be the “seat of Fordham college,” catering exclusively to undergraduate needs. Additional facilities that will be added to the campus include a new school of business, two buildings for education and social service and more student center space, as well as a large parking garage for faculty and staff. WFUV, Fordham’s radio station, will also move to the Lincoln Center campus, and the art gallery and University bookstore will find a new home, joined by a public café that will be open to the street on 62nd.
Byrne calls the new campus configuration a “more congenial environment to live and learn,” and Clinton explained the plans to build additional public access points so that the quadrangle can “serve as an amenity to the campus and for the neighborhood.” He expressed a desire to make the campus as accessible as possible to the public. “We want to have public spaces where the university community and the non-university community intermingle and exchange,” Byrne said.
The Lincoln Center campus got its start as a central location for 24 undergraduate programs and three graduate schools, which were housed at various locations throughout Manhattan until the Leon Lowenstein building went up in the late 1960s. The university has owned most of the superblock that the campus now sits on since 1957. The land was purchased as part of what Byrne called the “Lincoln Square Urban Renewal Plan.”
Byrne said of the expansion plans, “We’re going to use property we own; we’re not seeking to take over other neighborhoods, but to develop the property we have further.”
“The Plan has evolved as a result of those conversations with the community board,” Clinton said in his presentation, available on the Community Board’s Web site, which outlined the existing conditions of the campus, as well as amendments made to the original Plan. The Plan also accounts for two additional residential buildings on the two corners of Amsterdam Avenue, one on the north corner and one where the water main construction is currently wrapping up. This land is being sold off to try to deflect some of the costs from being passed on to students in the way of increased tuition, according to Byrne. Leaving the land along Amsterdam Avenue as the designated non-University property is all part of the plan to “preserve the outward look” of the campus to Columbus Avenue and Midtown Manhattan, Byrne said.
The plan, in two phases to be completed in 2014 and 2032 respectively, should begin to be implemented in the near future, but according to Byrne, will likely not affect any current undergraduate students, who “will graduate just as it begins to open and more space becomes available.” He said that the first building alone, the combined Law School and dormitory “will take close to three years just to build.” The plan involves adding an additional 2.2 million square feet of useable academic and residential space to the existing nearly 800,000 and should comfortably house an influx of new students in the decades to come. The plan will be implemented over a 25-year time frame to stagger construction and keep the campus as a livable and workable environment, according to Byrne. “If you tried to do two or three of these [construction projects] at one time, the campus would be totally disrupted and dysfunctional.”
One of the factors prohibiting construction in the immediate future is the water main construction going on outside of McMahon Hall on 60th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. After 14 years, the project should be coming to a close in the next few months, Byrne stated.
Byrne said that he anticipates construction of the new law school and residence hall will begin in the fall of 2009, and the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., President of Fordham University, has told students that the day the final permits are approved, he will be at the construction site with a hard hat and a shovel.
Fordham Alum Discusses Cancer Treatment Research
Studies of the Evolution of Cancer in the Cells of Mice Give Clues to Treating the Disease in Humans
On Dec. 4, Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s (FCLC) Science Club hosted a Lawless Series Speaker, Cory Abate-Shen, Ph.D. Each Lawless speaker is invited for his or her important work and for the purpose of helping “to expose new students to the sciences,” said Mohammad Usmani, FCLC ’10 and president of the Science Club. Abate-Shen, a Summa Cum Laude at Fordham, informed over 30 FCLC students and faculty about her studies with cancer research in mice.
Abate-Shen discussed her experiences with Rev. Lawless, for whom the series is named, when he served as one of her mentors during her studies at Fordham.
“Mentors guide us without force and help find your way, not the way,” Abate-Shen said. It was “the influences that came together” that ultimately inspired Abate-Shen to follow her passion in science, she said.
After obtaining her B.A. in psychology at Fordham University, Abate-Shen attended graduate school at Cornell University Medical College. She is a professor of urology and pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and is the associate director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Abate-Shen explained how studying cancer mechanism in mice assisted the understanding of cancer in humans. She said, “In my laboratory, we use genetically engineered mouse models to literally give mice cancer, and then we try to see if we can use those mice to understand how cancer evolves and whether we can develop new treatments.” Mice with cancer share a lot of similarities with humans with cancer, Abate-Shen said. She continued, “What we really want to do is tackle all of the stages of cancer…Mice allow you to interrogate the pathway of cancer.”
One of the major cancers studied at her lab is prostate cancer, Abate-Shen said. She said that it is a very common cancer and has many features that exemplify how cancer evolves. Cancer evolves from normal cells, then progresses into pre-evasive cells—which means that the cancer has formed but remains within the capsule and is still pre-malignant—until finally it reaches the cancerous stage where the cells escape from the capsule. It is at the metastasis stage when cancer is most serious and not treatable, thus Abate-Shen explains, “We want to slow down the process…find it, protect it early on, before it reaches metastasis.” By using mice, she is able to examine cancer at all of the stages. A pivotal hormone, Androgen, is required for this entire process to occur, but once it is removed, the cancer, which is “amazingly dependent upon the hormone,” will find a way to overcome it, Abate-Shen said. “Androgens are critical.”
In a treatment study, mice that were androgen-deprived resulted in the initial temporary disappearance of cancer, Abate-Shen said; however, the cancer reemerged, in sometimes less than a year, in a form that was no longer dependent on a source of androgens but rather “is really, really aggressive,” she said. Therefore, the treatment only delays the cancer; it does not treat it.
With the mouse model, Abate-Shen was able to discover the signaling pathways of cell proliferation. There were two pathways discovered, AKT and MAP kinase, which help promote cancer progression.
“By inhibiting the pathways, you can inhibit the growth,” she said. Engineered cancer cells were placed in these mouse models, which helped develop current therapies. In order to inhibit the signaling pathways, Abate-Shen said, you need two drugs, each to treat the two pathways, and then you have to be able to use them together—in this case Rapamycin and PD0325901—Abate-Shen said. The drugs need to get into the mice and get to pathways they are supposed to inhibit, she explained.
Abate-Shen said that, in Androgen-deprived mice, “the cancer was stripped almost down to nothing.”
“When choosing drugs, we choose drugs that we can actually give patients.” She said Rapamycin is a very common drug that is used. Upon discovering this in mice, Abate-Shen said the next step was to try it in humans. She collaborated with pathologists to sample prostate cancer patients in order to find out if they had both pathways activated.
She said that she discovered that 25 percent of those patients had both pathways activated. “You can imagine a large percentage of patients could benefit from these agents [Rapamycin and PD0325901],” Abate-Shen said.
Lillian Chiu, FCLC ’11, a psychology major, said that she found the discovery of the two drugs to be “the most interesting” part of the presentation and said she felt that it “provided good research opportunities.”
At the end of the forum, Usmani said that after attending several of these forums, “It is the same problem that can be looked at in different ways, but [all the forums and research] shares the same goal, and that is to cure cancer.”
By Laura Marostica Staff Writer
Have you ever noticed that, right about now, the library is suddenly more crowded than you’ve ever seen it? For college students, December is the month for stuffing your brain with what you did not learn this semester—before doom, also known as finals, descends. Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) is cheerfully decorated right now, but there is not much cheer in the study lounges, as students sit down and realize how much they need to learn in the few short weeks remaining in the semester—and if you haven’t kept up with your reading, that can mean three months’ worth of material. Catching up can be a daunting, if not terrifying, task. When asked about cramming, all Elyse McFadden, FCLC ’09, had to say was, “Don’t do it.” But if it’s already too late and you’ve saved your studying for the last week of school, here are five cramming suggestions FCLC students shared:
The best way to study for finals is to be on top of things from the get-go. Just because you haven’t done every reading all semester, that doesn’t mean you have to leave your studying to the night before the test.
“Try and study the week before, even if it’s just a little bit per day,” said Francis Pastorelle, FCLC ’10.
“When it comes to finals, spread out your cramming on different nights,” said Brian O’Connell, FCLC ’11. “Buckle down and get into it.”
To avoid completely numbing your brain, Samuel Wong, FCLC ’09, suggests varying your subjects when you study for long periods of time.
Spreading out studying is much more effective, according to memory research,” said Dr. Mark Mattson, Assistant Professsor and Associate Chair of Psychology at FCLC. “You can reduce interference by studying for one course for an hour or so, then switching to another course.”
Repeat, repeat, repeat
If you need to learn a lot of information in a short amount of time, repetition is key. Dates, terms, names, and so on are not going to stick unless you make them. “Take good notes, and read them over and over,” said Greg Afinogenov, FCLC ’09.
Juliet Ben-Ami, FCLC ’11, recommends flash cards for memorization: “I haven’t gotten less than an ‘A’ on a test [when I use them],” she said.
According to Mattson, quizzing yourself is also very helpful: “Recently, there are a number of studies that show that testing leads to better memory. This suggests that using study guide questions or on-line quizzes…will be helpful. It’s not about learning the answers to these questions: it’s about practicing retrieval of the information, and getting more accurate feedback about how prepared you are.”
Ask yourself: When is my mind alert?
When are you used to cracking down? You may not be on the same schedule as everyone else. If it’s two in the morning and you’re nodding off on your philosophy notes, try and study when the sun is up. If you know you’re going to hit the snooze on your alarm for an hour in the morning, then use the night hours for cramming. Be aware of when you get your best work done and you will be the least distracted.
For Wong, studying is best accomplished at night, after 10 o’clock. “I got used to it,” said Wong. Ben-Ami and Camille Avena, FCLC ’11, recommend mornings for studying. “Studying earlier in the day works best for me,” said Bonnie Torre, FCLC ’11. “Usually I do it between my morning and afternoon classes. Then I can review it later on at night, too.”
Find A Study Snack
Everyone worries about weight gain in college. But finals week is designated for more pressing concerns. Find out which snacks will keep you awake and happy – “snack bars, oatmeal bars…anything to keep the sugar level up,” said Wong.
Avena recommends Little Debbie Brownies—“they’re delicious.” For the health-conscious, grapes are an excellent cramming food, according to Ben-Ami. “They’re excellent, all water…you can just keep grabbing them.”
But what do you drink when you study? Rock Star is a favorite for Roger Quiles, FCLC ’10. “A protein shake with Red Bull keeps you awake twice as long,” she said. “I recommend the ‘Juiced’ varieties of Rock Star, i.e. pomegranate, the orange one too,” said Pastorelle. “They’re the least likely to make you vomit. Although, honestly, I find stomach aches to be helpful. You can’t fall asleep if your stomach feels like slow death.” A word to the wise: choose your study beverages with care.
Know Your Limits
Finals week can be extremely intimidating, but it is not the time to panic. Even if you are cramming, be aware of what works and what doesn’t for you personally. If nights without sleep are in your future, be careful. “If you’re going to pull an all-nighter, don’t tell yourself you’re going to nap. Don’t lay down. Don’t sit on your bed,” said O’Connell.
Marc Valentin, FCLC ’11, recommends periodical showers to stay awake while studying. But sleep, as it turns out, is helpful when it comes to retaining information. “Sleep on it,” advised Avena. “If you feel like don’t know the information, go to bed.”
“Don’t overdo it,” said O’Connell. “If you truly feel there’s nothing else you’re going to get out of [studying], it’s time to stop.”
Every student’s methods will be slightly different when it comes to finals. Do what’s best for you – find a snack, find a playlist, find a sleep schedule. Then stick to those things. Don’t get distracted. Try not to be intimidated.
“Stay positive…always keep the end in mind,” said Valentin. Take a deep breath. Don’t despair – you have three weeks of winter break to completely empty your overstuffed brain, coming right up.
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