If you missed the Town Hall, catch up here

Event Recaps Stories | Oct 04, 2011 | Nicole Gesualdo

For those of you who couldn’t make it to McGinley for Dean Rapaccioli’s Town Hall meeting on Thursday, September 29, we’re sad to report that we cannot get you any chicken fingers after the fact. But we can bring you up to speed! Below is a recap of the question-and-answer session to give you what you need to know.

Q: What should seniors do with the Business Week survey that will be coming this winter?

A: Answer it! Fordham’s Business Week ranking is extremely important. These rankings are used by agencies, prospective employers and college applicants nationwide to compare and contrast business schools. Each school needs a certain number of participating students to even be ranked at all, so please make sure to follow the survey link you receive to submit your own thoughts and opinions.

Q: What is the Gabelli School doing to help students get jobs?

A: We consider ourselves partners with the university-wide career services office in helping you to secure excellent jobs after graduation. The university coordinates the career fair, and the Gabelli administration supplements this with our own industry-specific programs, workshops, recruiting events and advising services. We have added more than 100 new recruiters to our roster in the last year alone, and we now have dedicated sector mentors — exclusively for Gabelli students — in three areas: accounting, finance and marketing. Please click on the Careers menu in the horizontal navigation bar above to explore all of the options we offer.

Q: Where do students get information about events and register?

A: The place to be these days is right here, at gabelliconnect.com. We relaunched this site in August with a new design and a vast amount of additional information, not to mention a handy link on the main page to GSB Access (see the red button in the right-hand column of the main page). Get used to GabelliConnect for an important reason: Soon, GSB Access will become a permanent sub-part of it. You will come directly to GabelliConnect to get information and to register (for events, advising, appointments and more) so save yourself some time and bookmark the main page now!

Q: Speaking of those events, is the Gabelli administration open to ideas for events and speakers?

A: A million times yes! Gabelli event planner Angela Giovine (GSB ’04, GBA ’05) wants to hear from students about what events you want to have created and held for you. E-mail her at agiovine@limeevents.net if you have thoughts on programs, events, workshops or speakers that we should consider.

Q: What’s up with Hughes Hall?

A: We anticipate that Hughes will open next summer, and commencement week 2012 will include a special event for seniors related to the new building. Hughes will be fully operational as Gabelli’s new home by next fall. The design includes a state-of-the-art media center, two kiosks where students can run a coffee business and sell Fair Trade goods, a much larger trading room with more Bloomberg terminals, a modern student lounge, flexible classroom layouts and energy-efficient features, such as windows that reduce the loss of heat in the winter and cold in the summer.

Q: Were any facilities improvements made in the meanwhile, while we wait for the Hughes construction to be complete?

A: Yes. To address students’ concerns about facilities in the interim, we fully renovated four classrooms on the third floor of Dealy Hall. Those rooms opened in September and are home to many Gabelli classes. Students enjoy flexible seating arrangements, made possible by chairs on wheels with laptop-capable tray tables; improved lighting; and current classroom technology such as SmartBoards.

Q: How are things coming along with the new core curriculum?

A: The integrated business core continues to be an ever-greater part of the fabric of Gabelli. Every member of the freshman Class of 2015 is taking The Ground Floor. We have tripled the number of sophomores in the core, from about 60 last year to around 200 this year. Juniors in the Class of 2013 who were our “Core Q” pioneers are taking a new Business Communication class that dovetails with the integrated core. The new program will expand its reach further throughout the student population next year and in the following year, when it will reach full implementation. Stay tuned for some fun news to come about a new, overarching name and concept for the core, as we give it its own “branding.”

Q: What is being done to help students who are considering careers in law?

A: Gabelli now has a full-time pre-law adviser in Professor Dennis Cappello. Students who might be interested in a legal career should contact him as early as possible in their time at Fordham — such as during sophomore year — to find out which courses, programs and activities will offer the best preparation. In addition, Gabelli has held events such as “Is a JD Right For You?” to help students think further about whether a law degree might help them reach their career goals in any field. According to the most recent Fordham data available from the Law School Admission Council, 76 percent of students who applied to law school had registered in a program. Students from the Classes of 2010 and 2011, for example, attend law schools that include NYU, the University of Virginia, Rutgers, Fordham and Brooklyn Law School.