2020 FCRH Dean’s Council Report

This year, Dean’s Council was focused on bringing the Fordham community together even when we are apart. Many of our past initiatives were transformed to be accessible from anywhere in the world. This was made possible in large part by our social media subcommittee. In order to navigate through the changing landscape of the hybrid education, our social media team surveyed students on their semester to gauge where Fordham is excelling and where Fordham could improve. This allowed for many more student opinions to be heard by the Deans at Fordham College at Rose Hill and I am pleased with how this channel of communication was strengthened. Also, on our Instagram, we had some administration ‘take over’ the account for the day to talk about their daily activities and show student everything they are working on for the 2020-2021 school year.

Dean’s Council was also able to hold some of our annual events. We continued to strengthen our relationship with the Gabelli School of Business Dean’s Council by holding our annual joint school town hall. In this town hall, deans from both schools came to together to present new ventures of their respective schools and answer questions from students. This was one of our biggest events this year since many school policies became fluid during the pandemic. This allowed for transparency and direct communication. Near the end of the semester, FCRH Dean’s Council held a registration Q&A session to alleviate any stress about the registration process which was new for many students.

In November, the Dean’s council held an online event in conjunction with the Office of Prestigious Fellowships where Dr. Beskin presented on how to write a personal statement. We hope to continue working with the Office of Prestigious Fellowships in the spring for another event on what the process is for applying to prestigious fellowships.

As vice president of FCRH I have been working with Dean Auricchio from Fordham College Lincoln Center to build a Dean’s Council on their campus. This would increase our opportunity for cross-campus collaboration in the future.

For next semester, the council is going to continue to receive student feedback on the semester, especially with the new academic schedule, and work with administration to make sure that students can still have the highest level of academics Fordham can offer without undue stress from students or faculty from the condensed schedule. We will also continue to push for a continuation of our long-term initiatives such as the transfer mentor program and our advising initiative for ease of student acclimation. We are looking forward to a great spring semester and a strong end to this unconventional year!

VP Anna Lazzaro