(source)
Fordham University has officially canceled an event that was a favorite to the majority of the student body. Ram Town (to the students who don’t know and will now never get to experience it) was a campus-wide event that took place in the Rose Hill Gym every year to promote the basketball teams and their upcoming seasons. There were spirited introductions of the teams, free food and t-shirts, piles of prizes to be given away during student games and contests and an entirely full gym packed with student pride and love for the Ramily.
The motivation behind this sad cancellation is to draw a bigger crowd of students to the basketball games because over the past few seasons, the attendance was phenomenal at Ram Town but quite weak at the actual games. So, Fordham canceled one of the only incredibly popular, majorly anticipated, student-filled events we have on this campus and students are not happy. Antonia Puma (FCRH ’18) pointed out that this event is a tradition and Fordham’s motivation for the cancellation backfired for her. “Ram Town was the only thing that made me even consider going to the basketball games, plus it’s just like a Fordham staple. I feel sorry for the poor baby freshman who didn’t get to experience it.”
Kelly Casey (FCRH ’18) also stands with the population of disappointed Rams considering how much her and her friends consistently looked forward to it. “I feel like we don’t have many prep rallies to support the basketball teams or other sporting events as unique as Ram Town was. It was always so exciting to see the gym packed with other Fordham students, wearing Fordham gear with pride. The atmosphere of the gym was filled with cheer, joy, and laughter. For one night nothing else mattered except being a Ram.” One thing our community can relate to, though, is how much we all love being Rams. While this event will no longer be present in our fall semesters, we will find other outlets to express our endless school pride. Perhaps the home games Fordham is hoping to redirect the Ram Town crowds towards.
Amidst all of the heavy disappointment from the student population, there are some who do understand this move by Fordham. Joe Dayrit (FCRH ’18) says, “It’s kind of annoying that they cancelled it but I get that they canceled it to try and increase fan turnout.” Hopefully because of this extreme action, there will be major turnouts at the future basketball games this season. After all, our Rams are the best and they deserve all the Ramily support that they can get. We’ll get through this tough loss together.