For the third straight year, Fordham University’s Office of Summer Session has recorded a record number of students in its 200-course program. Total undergraduate enrollment this summer is up 11 percent over last year, including a 10 percent increase in the number of visiting students.
The Summer Session, which runs from May 30 to Aug. 5, offers day and evening classes in undergraduate business as well as the arts and sciences on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The 2008 program has enrolled more than 1,800 students at the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses.
Ron Jacobson, Ph.D., dean of the Office of Summer Session, attributes the program’s increase in popularity to an effective mix of required and innovative courses. The program also has employed a strategic marketing plan to target potential visiting students, he said.
“The word is getting around that Fordham provides some excellent summer education opportunities,” Jacobson said. “Our marketing efforts are supported by an increasing awareness of the University as a top-tier regional and national institution.”
Jacobson added that the University’s reputation makes it easy to transfer credits to home institutions.
Among the Session’s unique programs are:
– a 10-week Summer in the City internship allowing students to earn credit by interning at companies and organizations such as the New York Stock Exchange, United Nations and VH1.
– the Sports Communication Institute, a survey course of sports journalism, broadcasting, advertising, and effective public relations. The institute, in its ninth year, is co-taught by Jacobson and John Cirillo (FCRH ’78), former vice president of public relations for the New York Knicks, and features field trips and visits from several sports media professionals.
– The New York City Summer Certificate Program in Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis, an intensive 10-week program for international business professionals sponsored through Fordham’s International Political and Economic Development (IPED) program.
– Sustainable New York, a course in urban green design that offers fieldwork at Solar 1, New York City’s first carbon-neutral building.
– The Pre-College Program, which offers gifted high school seniors a chance to take courses while exploring Fordham as their college choice. The program has doubled its enrollment in one year.
Jacobson noted that the Session tries to tailor some courses to the particular research interests of Fordham faculty. For example, Colin Cathcart, associate professor of theatre and visual arts and teacher of Sustainable New York, specializes in green architectural design. Anne Fernald, Ph.D., assistant professor of English, is a Virginia Woolf scholar and author of Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader(Palgrave, 2006). Fernald teaches a four-week graduate-level course on the significant feminist writer.
The summer program draws most visiting students from the tri-state area, but recently has seen an upturn in student enrollment from Florida, California and the Midwest.
“The chance to spend part of your summer in New York City is a major draw,” Jacobson said.
