Late last school year, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH)’s, The Fordham Ram, published a series of articles expressing students’ dissatisfaction with the Office of Student Leadership and Community Development at Rose Hill (OSLCD). Some of the articles include, Silence of the Rams: Fordham’s Free Speech Problem by Canton Winer, (FCRH ’15), and Editorial: Talking About, and Fostering, Change on Campus by The Ram Editorial Board. One of the articles, How Administrators Caused a Culture of Apathy by Frank Sivilli, (FCRH ’15), starts with saying, “This is a piece that has been long in the making. It upsets me to think just how long. It seems I have had issues with the Office of Student Leadership and Community Development (OSLCD) and the Office of Student Life (OSL) since the day I first became a student leader.” This signifies that the issues that students are facing were building for a while before resulting in the series of articles.

According to James Demetriades, (FCRH ‘15) and author of Ram article “OSLCD Takes Steps to Improve,” one of the issues Rose Hill students face is the lack of individual attention towards club leaders. The article states that students suffer the consequences of OSLCD being understaffed and therefore not able to manage the more than 100 clubs on campus. According to the article, club leaders complain about late money returns, problems communicating with the staff, and problems concerning booking rooms for their meetings and events.

Dr. Dorothy Wenzel, director of OSLCD at Fordham Lincoln Center, said, “There is a frustration level that I worry about, because when I started here there were only 28 clubs and I do worry that students may have a frustration here, in regards to finding space on campus.” With 51 clubs, the question is whether students at Lincoln Center feel the same dissatisfaction with members of OSLCD. Leighton Magoon, United Student Government (USG) president and Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC ‘17), said that he hasn’t experienced any conflict with OSLCD, stating “[USG] has a close relationship with OSLCD.” Magoon said, ”the relationship I have had at Lincoln Center [with students] is very different than the relationship between a club leader and OSLCD at Rose Hill.” He believes that this results from USG working closely with OSLCD at Lincoln Center, forging a “more personal relationship.”

With a record amount of clubs being approved this past year and the other clubs that will be approved this coming year, concerns turn to whether there is a growing concerning that club leaders will experience the same problems as those of Rose Hill. Magoon doesn’t believe that Fordham Lincoln Center will experience this problem, however “what is happening at Rose Hill is something to be aware of.” He said, “we [members of USG and OSLCD staff] are making sure both OSLCD and USG are fitting the needs of the students for next year.”

One of the ways that Lincoln Center is hoping to avoid the same reaction that happened at Rose Hill is by hosting a town hall. Magoon plans to have, “an open town hall event, to hear club leader feedback and how we can improve or if there is any room for improvement.” Furthermore, Jessica Jones, a student worker in the OSLCD office and (FCLC ’17), says that from her perspective club leaders, “are very happy. They’re involved in multiple clubs, they do GO! Projects and are constantly in the [OSLCD] office. Even after they graduate there’s a lot of alumni who come back and say hello.”

CORRECTION:An earlier version of this article stated that there were 54 clubs on the FCLC campus, there are actually 51 clubs.