Fordham University may not offer quirky classes in its continuing education program, but what it does offer has been attracting students for over 60 years.

“We’ve been doing continuing education since 1947, offering bachelor degrees to adults coming back to school in the evening,” said Isabella Frank, Fordham’s dean of continuing education and professional studies. “Currently we have about 900 credit-seeking students, of whom about 800 are going for their bachelor degrees, and the other 100 are taking classes either for credits to apply to medical school or switch careers.”

The program offers two major degrees: a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science. But most of the majors offered in an undergraduate program can be sought out by those interested in continuing education and professional studies.

“You can take most of the majors that exist in a traditional undergraduate program, but it depends on which campus you are in,” Frank said. “We have three campuses, so we have 900 students spread out throughout the three campuses, one in Lincoln Center, one in the Bronx—the main Fordham campus—and one in Westchester. So [for example] Lincoln center students, if they can take day classes, they can take some of the day majors.”

The most popular majors include economics, organizational leadership, psychology and communications, according to Frank. The University also boasts a new three-year-old business program at Fordham’s Westchester campus. There is also an option to create an individualized major, which allows students to draw classes from different areas within the professional studies program.

But while this may sound like a regular line-up most colleges offer, Fordham offers its own set of special classes.

“Because this is a Jesuit university, we do have classes that you’re not going to find in other schools,” Frank said. “There is an emphasis on philosophy and theology. For example, we have a senior values seminar called ‘Death and Dying,’ and we have a philosophy course called ‘Classical Values: The Art of Living.’”

Besides the unique philosophical courses, there are also courses in more modern fields of study.

“[For example] we have cyber-security, which is a growing field that we will be going into more,” Frank said. “We don’t have sexy-sounding titles the way other schools might, but we have a very strong core curriculum that our students take, [along with] online classes and intensive weekend classes.”

While it is common to see continuing education programs geared toward middle-aged adults, Fordham’s age range is from 18 all the way to 66.
“We have 18-year-olds who are full-time dancers in the NYC ballet of ABT and so they sort of take classes Monday evenings given their rehearsal schedule,” Frank said. “I think our age range, though it shifts every year, is in the low thirties, but it does range from 18 to 66 or 67.”

The application process for continuing education is different from that of a typical four-year degree program. The admissions process doesn’t review SAT scores but judges the applicant based on his or her readiness to attend school and understanding of what the program is like, according to Frank.

Fordham accepts up to 75 transfer credits and takes into account any prior courses that the applicant might have taken, even if they were completed 30 years ago.
For more information, visit Fordham.edu.

Fordham University recently cleared a court hurdle in expanding its Lincoln Center campus.

A state Supreme Court judge dismissed complaints August 16 from a nearby condominium that believed approval of Fordham’s expansion should be rescinded.

A rendering of Fordham’s proposed new campus.

The expansion was proposed to accommodate Fordham’s 8,000-plus student body, which is using a campus that spans a “super block” between West 60th to 62nd streets from Amsterdam to Columbus avenues. The proposal would create new dorms, a new law school, a library and includes two private luxury residential buildings that will help fund the school’s endowment.

Nearby residents had complained about the size of the proposal and demanded concessions during the public land use process. Indeed, the plan changed after Community Board 7, Borough President Scott Stringer, the City Planning Commission and, finally, the City Council weighed in on the plan.

At the end of the public review process, Fordham was approved to construct six buildings, adding 1.5 million square feet to its Lincoln Center campus.

Fordham’s planned expansion would arguably affect the Alfred the most. The 37-story condominium building is in the middle of the university’s campus. When Fordham acquired the “super block” in 1957, a Catholic school on West 61st Street was left out of the purchase. In 1989, that school was sold to a private developer that built the Alfred.

Though the City Council approved Fordham’s plans in July 2009, the Alfred’s lawyer tried to argue that the height of new construction, including the addition of a private residential building, violates a 1957 urban renewal plan that limits buildings to 20 stories.

“All of that was prohibited by the urban renewal plan,” said Elliott Meisel, attorney representing the Alfred.

Judge Judith Gische, in a 22-page decision, sided with Fordham because amendments were made to the urban renewal plan. One such amendment put a 2006 expiration date on the urban renewal plan’s restrictions on height and private land use.

Gische also rejected the Alfred’s claim against the city and the Council for approving the project “on the basis that the master plan was not well considered, the analysis techniques used in approving the master plan were flawed, if not outright misused, and the City had no right to amend the restrictive covenants [of the urban renewal plan],” the court decision says.

“We’ll be deciding what aspects of that decision we’re challenging,” Meisel, the Alfred’s lawyer, said about an appeal.

Sidney Goldfischer, the Alfred’s condominium board president, criticized Fordham’s proposal for being too large for an already crowded neighborhood.

“It’ll be Times Square not Lincoln Square,” Goldfischer said.

The Alfred was part of Fordham Neighbors United, a group of eight nearby condominiums that fought the proposal during the public review process. Goldfischer believes that, despite Fordham’s concessions, the project is too large and the two luxury towers should have been sold back to the city for community use.

“What they’re going to put up flies in the face of their agreement and their commitment to the city,” Goldfischer said.

Tom Dunne, Fordham’s vice president of government relations and urban affairs, was pleased with the judge’s decision.

“We were confident,” Dunne said, “we were going to prevail.”

Fordham Lawsuit