Published: February 16, 2011

Notice the new fence on the plaza? How about the giant orange piece of construction equipment ripping up the ground at 9 a.m.? Well, I have, and this revelation can only signal one thing: Fordham is finally building the new Law School building. I’m excited about the construction of the new building. In fact, I’m downright giddy. Yet why should I, a graduating senior, be excited about a new building that I may very well never use?

The construction of the law building will not be an easy activity for the FCLC community to endure. Students are going to have to deal with the ugly look of the site, the construction sounds that occur when a massive new building is built 100 feet from where you live and the knowledge that they, too, will probably never live in the building. However, this new law building signals another turning point for the history of Fordham University.

Fordham has been rising in the ratings over the last few years and the construction of the new building will only help continue its rise. A gleaming new building not only brings local notoriety, but also changes the perception of our campus away from “that school with all the beige buildings” to “that campus with the shiny new building.” Baby steps.

Joking aside, the departure of the Law School from its current residence allows at least one of the graduate schools in Lowenstein to move across the plaza into some new digs. This allows undergrads to claim another floor for classes, meetings, events, etc. Further, the addition of the new residential dorms on top of the law building brings in more freshmen and therefore a large crop of students to help add to our already diverse campus (not to mention a larger dating pool). These dorms are going to be styled differently from those in McMahon by moving away from the apartment design we are accustomed to and moving towards a more community-based style involving lounges on each floor and traditional dorm bedrooms. Such a chain is going to allow students to remove themselves from the friendly confines of the apartment and be able to socialize the other residents on the floor in a way that was not before possible.

Still, why should I care? I’m not going to live in these dorms. I probably won’t attend Fordham Law (reverse psychology). In fact, the actual construction of the building itself has nothing to do with my future plans and experiences. What it does do, however, is continue to chronicle the rise in respect for a Fordham degree. As the class of 2011 leaves in May, we will have been part of the fastest rise a college has ever performed in the U.S. News Report’s collegiate rankings. We will be the class that is graduating from Fordham at a time when it is receiving acclamation for its academics, events and even athletics. It is important to look at our Fordham degree as a stock that is continuously rising, even after we graduate. As Fordham continues to rise in recognition, accepts more and more talented students and forces its way into the NYU-Columbia stratosphere, all of our degrees look better and better. That is why I’m excited; that is why I am giddy.

As the class of 2011 enters into another year of poor job prospects and large debt, we have the reassurance that the Fordham brand is going to continue to rise. While the complete renovation of the campus may not be completed for decades to come, the new installation of the Law School/dormitory signals to New York that Fordham is growing.