Since the start of the spring 2020 semester, the Feminist Alliance has been inactive on the Fordham Lincoln Center campus due to few people wanting to take on leadership positions. 

The former president of the Feminist Alliance, Maya Tatikola, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, explained that the goal was to create a space for feminists to imagine their own perspective at Fordham and discuss issues in the world through an intersectional lens.

“We did not have enough people running for positions for e-board,” Tatikola said. “Like a lot of clubs on Fordham Lincoln Center’s Campus, it can be difficult to commit to the responsibilities of an e-board position because of other jobs and obligations. We only had two e-board members (our) second semester, and it was difficult to delegate all of the tasks to both of us.”

According to Rachana Komatireddy, FCLC ’22, chair of operations of the United Student Government (USG), e-board members struggling to keep up with coursework while in a leadership position is a common reason that clubs become inactive.

Due to a high level of club inactivity at the beginning of the fall 2019 semester, the USG board put a list of inactive clubs on a sign-up sheet in order to see if there was any interest from incoming students to revive them, which included the Feminist Alliance. 

In the past, the Feminist Alliance has hosted events such as Galentine’s Day and Feminist Open Mic. Other events included the “Women at Fordham Luncheons” and “Gender Roles and Sushi Rolls”. The events were hosted as part of Women’s History Month with the hope of broadening the feminist community at Fordham, according to Tatikola.  

“Feminist Alliance not only fundraises for New York City organizations but also bring attention to feminist issues that impact and influence our world every day,” Taitikola said about the importance of the club. 

“Feminist Alliance created a growing space and encompassed a diverse group of people on this campus. I had been on the Feminist Alliance e-board since I was a Freshman up until this last semester, and I was able to meet a lot of wonderful people through it along the way.” 

“I started my role in August and even then it (the Feminist Alliance) was pretty much in decline, in the sense that there wasn’t much of an eboard to keep it going,” President of USG Tina Thermadam, FCLC ’20, said.

“As time goes on, it becomes hard to actually have an effective group of people that are able to keep it going and do all of the paperwork that we need them to submit,” Thermadam said.  

During the spring semester, USG sent out a newsletter containing information about the Feminist Alliance, encouraging any students interested to create a new E-Board and start the club again. 

According to Komatireddy, the Feminist Alliance moved back to active status a few days ago. The E-Board positions had been filled after the email was sent to students and Komatireddy was waiting for the final paperwork to be done before moving them back to active status. The new E-Board will be led by president Gabrielle Abrazaldor, FCLC ’23; and Vice President Riley Ng, FCLC ’22. Anita Kwok, FCLC ’22, will be taking on the role of secretary and Rhea Subramanian, FCLC ’22, will be the new treasurer.  

“We’ve done a couple revivals already this semester,” Thermadam said. “DEASL (Deaf Education and American Sign Language) comes to mind, as well as Chess Club.”