About The Observer

Mission

The Observer seeks to serve the Fordham University community as “The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center.” Organized around values of community, education and inclusion, we pursue this mission through our truthful and uncompromising reporting and mentoring of the next generation of journalists. 

History

Founded in 1981, The Observer is the award-winning student newspaper based at Fordham Lincoln Center. Its circulation reaches both the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses, making its print editions available to all the students in the university’s undergraduate colleges and graduate schools.

The Observer is Fordham Lincoln Center’s third newspaper. The first was The Curved Horn, which was brought over from Fordham’s Teachers College in lower Manhattan and renamed to The Review when the Lincoln Center campus was built in 1968. Its counterpart, The Evex, targeted students taking evening classes. By the fall of 1980, both publications had folded, giving way to The Observer. The first issue of The Observer was published in November 1981.

Though founded under the auspices of the Communication and Media Studies (CMS) department, The Observer split from CMS in 2016 and has run independently under the Office for Student Involvement since. 

Observer staff have gone onto careers in journalism, law, finance, public relations, performing arts, education, consulting and more. They are represented at major companies including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, Twitter, Google, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, HBO and ESPN.