Graduate and Professional Schools, Centers and Institutes and International Academic Initiatives
Graduate education featured prominently in the annual report on academics for 2009-2010. Overall, the year was one of growth and reorganization in the graduate and professional schools. The fall 2010 semester began with a new dean of the faculty of business; a new dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration; and an interim dean at the School of Law.
The University launched a number of new graduate programs and initiatives in 2009-2010 that strengthened research and curriculum, increased the number and breadth of Fordham’s international partnerships, and enhanced faculty development.
New Degree and Certificate Programs
Fordham continued to develop new degree and certificate programs in 2009-2010.
The Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) received approval for an online master of social work program, the first of its kind in the region. Marketing for the program begins in January 2011, with the first cohort enrolled for September 2011. This program integrates GSS’s new curriculum foci of human rights and social justice. With the support of JesuitNET, the University’s partner in developing online programs, the development of the online MSW program capitalizes on the knowledge and expertise of GSS faculty and administrators as well as on the staff and infrastructure of Fordham’s Instructional and Technology Academic Computing division.
The Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) celebrated the successful launch of its new Master of Science in Global Finance (MSGF) program, offered in cooperation with Peking University. GBA also signed an agreement with Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to establish a joint program, and launched a dual degree executive MBA program with Kadir Has University in Turkey. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) received approval for three new programs: a Master of Arts in Applied Psychological Methods (in collaboration with the Graduate School of Education); a Master of Arts in International Humanitarian Action (in collaboration with the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs); and an Advanced Certificate in Financial Computing (to serve GBA students).
Also during 2009-2010, the Law School received approval for a Master’s (LLM) in International and Comparative Law and a Doctor of Juridical Sciences (SJD). Targeted toward international students, the SJD will enhance the school’s academic environment and international reputation.
Academic Partnerships, Affiliations, and Centers
Fordham continued the expansion of academic partnerships, affiliations and centers of research and service in the 2009-2010 year, with an emphasis on international programs. These include GBA’s partnerships with Peking University and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and the GSAS’s International Political Economy and Development Emerging Markets program with the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
The University also expanded its partnerships and affiliations at the local, regional and national level. GSE’s Partnership Support Organization (PSO) network was designated as a Children First Network under the new City of New York Department of Education organizational model. As a result of 100 percent satisfaction ratings by currently participating schools, the number of schools in the GSE network increased from 10 to 17 during the year, and GSE anticipates expansion to 24 schools in the coming year. A GSE partnership with two New York City school districts and the Council of Supervisors and Administrators resulted in a successful New York State Education Department grant supporting the preparation of urban school leaders. Fordham was one of only six institutions statewide to receive the grant, thereby establishing the Bilingual Education/English as a Second Language Teacher Leadership Academy last April. The school’s two Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Centers continued to provide technical assistance and professional development in English language learning to more than 300 schools in the Bronx and in Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties. With these partnerships, GSE continued in its development of innovative, cutting-edge programs that are responsive to educational reform efforts in New York City and the country.
GBA’s W. Edward Deming Memorial Conference benefited from partnerships with the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education and the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Education Initiative. The daylong conference was titled “MBA Under Siege: Reimagining Management Education,” and brought together key academics with global reputations.
GRE took a leading role in the formation of the AJCU Conference on Pastoral, Theological, and Ministerial Education. The conference involved 12 Jesuit universities and focused on sharing resources and developing creative programs in pastoral and theological leadership. GRE worked in partnership with the Archdiocese of New York and the American Bible Society to co-sponsor a national colloquium on the outcomes of Pope Benedict XVI’s Synod of Bishops as it pertained to the Bible. In addition, GRE continues its strong participation in the University’s Latino/a programs sponsored by the Latin American and Latino Studies Institute, as well as initiating partnerships with the American Bible Society and the Pastoral Life Center in 2009-2010.
The Center for Ethics Education (CEE) formalized its work with St. Barnabas Hospital (SBH) through an agreement establishing SBH as a practicum site for the CEE’s M.A. in Ethics and Society program and involvement of an SBH physician as an instructor in the program. The Center for Urban Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences will support research and training programs, as well as promote collaboration among scientists at Fordham and regional institutions such as the New York Botanical Garden and the Wildlife Conservation Society/Bronx Zoo.
New centers include the Law School’s Fashion Law Institute. A first-of-its-kind initiative, the Institute will establish a position of preeminence for the school in the city’s second largest industry, enhance the strength of the school’s intellectual property program (a focus of its strategic plan) and be of tremendous help in assisting graduates in search of jobs.
GBA established the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center “to conduct independent research and training in the management of the global innovation process in pharmaceuticals and healthcare delivery systems.” In addition, GBA established the Center for Research in Contemporary Finance. The mission of this center is to “conduct research and provide continuous discourse on contemporary challenges and developments in the financial industry, with a view to bringing together diverse participants of the industry and to providing meaningful guidance to policy makers.” It will do so in the context of Fordham’s fundamental Jesuit philosophy of critical analysis, ethics and social justice.
GSS and GBA launched the Center for Nonprofit Leaders, which has brought about a new focus on interdisciplinary collaborations. The center, which provides a low-cost opportunity for managers of small nonprofits to improve their ability to provide ethical, competent service to very vulnerable populations, included an intensive executive training program on three Saturdays in April, and a year of free mentoring for students by top-level agency executives.
Student Academic Development
Research Opportunities
In the last year, Fordham has seen tremendous growth in student research, underlining the University’s commitment to increasing research opportunities at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
GSAS students continued to be deeply involved in research, publishing two edited books (theology and English), 52 papers, chapters, short stories, and poems and presented 137 papers at professional conferences in 2009-2010. The annual GSAS Communitas celebration included a GSAS student research competition featuring 33 posters and seven videos, and a panel of 10 student judges was mentored by two GSAS alumni for a preliminary round of the competition. The New York Botanical Garden continued to provide partial support for a Ph.D. student in biological sciences, who subsequently received a Fulbright Scholarship to support his research.
Noteworthy Student Achievements
This year the University had its first Cambridge University International Scholars Ph.D. Award, to Mohammad Usmani, FCLC ’10, whose candidacy was supported by The St. Edmund Campion Institute for the Advancement of Intellectual Excellence.
Other graduate program successes included a team of GBA students defeating 15 other schools to win the prestigious New York Society of Security Analysts Annual Investment Research Challenge; the second annual Fordham Business Plan Competition being won by GBA student Stefani Gartenberg; and exceptional placement at regional, national and international competitions by the Law School’s Dispute Resolution, Moot Court, and Moore Advocates teams. This year, law students received 11 prestigious fellowships and awards (almost three times the number of the previous year).
GSAS students received 57 prestigious national and international awards, including Fulbright Scholarships to students in biological sciences, international political economy and development, law and history. Other prestigious awards include the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship to a student in clinical psychology;the Boren Fellowship to an IPED student; and Folger Library Awards to two students in graduate English, among many other awards.
Faculty Development
In the graduate and professional schools, faculty renewal and development comprised a broad range of initiatives over the past year. In the schools of business, for example, faculty scholarship was enhanced through an expanded number of fellowships and summer research fellowships; and two new centers were launched to support research in contemporary finance and global healthcare management.
The Office of Research initiated a new Fordham Research Grant program to provide summer research stipends. A rigorous application process focused on demonstrated research activity resulted in a successful first year with the receipt of 26 applications and nine awards. Focused on providing initial funding for pilot research, the program will utilize a new process that tracks the efficacy of the initial research in terms of published scholarship and external grants. The regular Fordham Research Grant program received 85 applications; 43 were funded. New external grant applications increased 28 percent and new external funding awards increased 83 percent over the 2009-2010 levels.
A digital humanities working group was established to develop cross-disciplinary dialogue among digital humanities scholars, librarians, computer science faculty, and information technologists at Fordham.
Online Learning Initiatives
Fordham’s online learning initiative continued to develop and expand with GSS’s online MSW, Fordham College of Liberal Studies’ renewed focus on online courses, and Summer Session’s interest in expanding its online offerings. GRE’s three online programs accounted for 25 percent of its overall enrollment, with the master’s in pastoral care showing strong growth as the programs moved to eight-week terms. Additional systematic online learning opportunities are also being considered by the School of Law and the Graduate School of Education.
With the increased interest in online learning, the graduate schools continued to work with JesuitNET and the University’s distance learning task force to outline a scalable internal infrastructure to support both full-fledged programs as well as individual course development. The infrastructure will take into account the specialized needs of students in online courses. As part of the infrastructure development and to ensure that online resources are effective academically and financially, processes and models that provide critical information necessary to understanding program growth and how to plan additional online activity are being developed. The JesuitNET-delivered Competency Assessment in Distributed Education (CADE) workshop for faculty developing online courses is proving to be an excellent pedagogical tool, as it directly connects learning outcomes and assessment with course content and assignments.
Development of International Initiatives
The graduate schools of the University continued to build upon international partnerships and programmatic development with a focus in three key locations: London, Beijing and Pretoria. These initiatives are natural gateways for the future growth and direction of Fordham’s presence on the international educational scene.
Asia
The graduate and professional schools, working with the Office of the Provost and the Office of International Initiatives, continued to develop a cohesive strategy to link University programs to other worldwide learning opportunities for students in China in 2009-2010. The BiMBA program in Beijing, now in its second decade, provides a gateway to Asia for Fordham, which expanded this key collaboration with the National School of Development within Peking University in 2009-2010 with the launch of its master of science in global finance. A grant for $1 million from the NASDAQ OMX Educational Foundation will help to fund the program in its first three years, and Fordham’s relationship with NASDAQ will allow the University to expand opportunities for international education, especially in the burgeoning China market.
Fordham and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) concluded an agreement for a joint program under which SUFE will recruit suitable candidates for Fordham’s MBA. Prospective students will receive language and pre-MBA training from SUFE prior to their application to Fordham. This agreement will increase the pool of well-equipped international applicants and enrich the educational experience for all students enrolled in the program.
Fordham also established a new affiliation with Wuhan University that will facilitate faculty and student exchange and research collaboration.
At the School of Law, the Institute for the Rule of Law in Asia, housed in the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, provided opportunities for lawyers outside of China to support Chinese colleagues in their quest to establish the rule of law, with the support and commitment of the Chinese government.
The Korea Exchange Agreement finalized in 2008-2009 between South Korea’s Ministry of Justice and Fordham Law was further developed over the past academic year. The agreement marks Korea’s first such initiative in the United States.
Africa
The development of Fordham’s agreement with the University of Pretoria (UP), completed in 2008-2009, has considerably strengthened Fordham’s growing presence in Africa. In 2009-2010, the provost traveled to South Africa to meet with senior administrators, faculty, business leaders and government officials to discuss initiatives designed to expand this critical partnership. Nancy Busch, Ph.D., dean of GSAS, also met with UP officials in South Africa to explore further partnerships in economics, urban studies, theology, psychology, research, entrepreneurship and community engagement.
James Hennessy, Ph.D., dean of GSE, visited Pretoria last spring and discussed possible plans with his counterpart there, as did the dean of GSS, Peter Vaughan, Ph.D. Michael Latham, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, similarly visited the University of Pretoria to build new relationships and plan for shared programs and faculty and student exchange opportunities, particularly in the areas of international affairs, international political economy, economics and political science.
In May 2010, the inaugural cohort of South African students arrived in New York to attend a five-week program sponsored by Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development program and to earn certificates in the Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis Program.
The 10 UP students were co-sponsored by the consul general of South Africa in New York. This exchange complements the trips taken by Fordham students to South Africa in August 2008 and 2009.
At the School of Law, the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice’s 2010 Crowley Project focused on the difficulties women face in securing adequate housing in urban areas in Tanzania. In May, Fordham Law professors were joined by seven students to conduct field work in consultation with non-governmental organizations in Tanzania, and their report will be distributed internationally. The nations of Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone are also part of the Leitner clinic’s focus countries in Africa. The clinic works in partnership with non-governmental organizations and law schools on international human rights projects ranging from legal and policy analysis, fact-finding and report writing, to human rights training and capacity-building, and public interest litigation.
South America
South America is another important area in the development of Fordham’s international partnerships. During the coming year, the University will make further efforts to improve existing exchange agreements with current partners in Mexico and Brazil.
The School of Law has expanded international judicial internship and externship opportunities, which provide law students the opportunity to work with world-renowned jurists, to include placements with the high courts of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. The Leitner Clinic also plans to expand its human rights focus to Latin America.
Academic Leadership Development
The Office of the Provost planned and oversaw an important series of decanal transitions beginning in 2008-2009, which continued to evolve this past academic year.
John P. Harrington, Ph.D., was appointed dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, with a mandate to strengthen undergraduate education and the role of arts and sciences at the University. In his first year, Harrington has collaborated with the deans of FCRH, FCLC, GSAS and FCLS in producing significant achievements in curricular revision and renewal, in faculty growth in scholarship and teaching, and in integrated strategic planning and communication.
David A. Gautschi, Ph.D., was appointed dean of GBA in July 2010. Gautschi came to Fordham from the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he served since 2005 as dean and professor of marketing and business economics and as acting director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship. Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School of Business, was named dean of the faculty of the schools of business and assumed direct responsibility for a unified business faculty in July 2010. Rapaccioli is working closely with Gautschi to advance research and high-level teaching skills among a diverse faculty of 200 scholars and industry experts.
This year Michael M. Martin was named interim dean of the School of Law. An expert in the fields of torts, civil procedure, evidence, and conflicts of law, Martin served as associate dean from 1995 to 2001 and has twice since served as associate dean for administration. A search committee was appointed in summer 2010, and the national search for the dean’s position began in the fall.
Graduate and Adult Admission Council
The Graduate and Adult Admission Council (GAAC), a shared endeavor of the graduate and professional schools, the Office of the Provost, the Enrollment Group, and IT, completed its second full year of work. The council expanded its collaboration through the formation of four subcommittees whose memberships include not only GAAC members but staff from the Law School, the Office of International Services, the Institute of American Language and Culture, Marketing and Communications, Institutional Research, and International Admission – Undergraduates. In addition, GAAC also worked with Career Services and the Office of Legal Counsel on specific projects and policies.
The Year Ahead
Fordham’s graduate and professional schools have made significant progress toward strengthening the academic life of the University in the past year. As the University moves toward the goals of prominence and preeminence as stated in Toward 2016, the schools will continue to align their individual goals and priorities with those of the University.
The search for a dean of the School of Law is among the highest priorities in graduate education this year. Likewise, the graduate and professional schools will continue to emphasize and invest in growth at Fordham Westchester.
In collaboration with the Office of the Provost, schools will also continue to focus on international initiatives and University partnerships and developing and supporting innovative curricular programs.
