Fordham Messaging
We are the Jesuit university in and of New York City.
The bonds between Fordham and New York run deep. Our indelible Jesuit character has a lot in common with New York’s essential nature: we share an affinity for complexity and frontiers, an appetite for the vigorous exchange of ideas, a healthy skepticism and exuberant restlessness, and ready embrace for human diversity in all forms.
In New York, where social, economic, political, religious, and cultural forces converge and clash as nowhere else, where amazing possibilities and chronic inequality exist side by side, we have the best possible proving ground for the value of “bothered excellence”—and for people who define their lives as being more and doing more for the world.
Knowledge for the sake of the whole human family.
Whether in the sciences, the arts, business, law, or the humanities, the ideas we generate at Fordham share a distinctive signature: a belief in the transformative power of inquiry for its own sake; an impatience with conventional academic boundaries and frameworks; an insistence that change, whatever form it takes, must move humanity forward.
“Bothered excellence” and discovery are, in fact, synonymous: being bothered is the impetus for every breakthrough, insight, and innovation.
The unmistakably Fordham habits of heart & mind.
Wherever their personal and professional journeys take them, Fordham alumni know that our high expectations for them don’t stop when they leave campus. We want them to be known as the people who fearlessly ask urgent, tough questions: the “Whys?” that determine the future of the world.
Our graduates feel ready to take on these questions because Fordham has cared for each one of them as a whole person. The curiosity, courage, and commitment to service they develop here—their “bothered excellence”—prepares them for a life of leadership. It’s the bond our alumni share and it distinguishes them as men and women for others.
Humanism for a fragmented age.
In a world that has never been more interdependent—and never more defined by distrust, distraction, and disposability, Fordham’s unapologetic Jesuit humanism matters more than ever. We believe that faith, the arts, and reason are not enemies of one another. We believe commerce must serve a higher purpose.
And we believe, as a Catholic university founded by and for immigrants, that every person has potential and worth. We’re proud to carry on the Jesuit legacy of fearless humanist-explorers, forever in dialogue with the world, sparking chain reactions of wonder, discovery, and progress—all in the name of a more just, inclusive society.