Submitted by Sidney Goldfischer, Jul 27, 2007 11:04

Many of Fordham's statements are incorrect. The most egregious is its claim that it has fulfilled its contractual obligations to the city and has the right to sell campus land to private developers. In fact, the clauses forbidding such sale have no expiration date and remain in effect until Fordham builds all of the educational facilities it is committed to construct in the Site Plan attached to its Dec 24, 1957 Agreement with NYC. In that basic Fordham/NYC Agreement (para 302)Fordham agrees to use all of the land in the Collegiate site solely for educational purposes" and to construct on the site educational facilities such as "classrooms, libraries, assembly and lecture halls, dormitories and student and faulty activity facilities together with cultural and recreational facilities of the general nature shown in the Site Plan (Schedule F)." The term "all" is explicit and unmodified. The Agreement repeatedly (Paras 405, 506 and 507) prohibits the unrestricted sale or lease of any land Fordham to a for-profit entity prior to the " actual Completion of the Project, as defined in Paragraph 304." In the event there is to be any sale at all it must be " at the actual cost to another educational or charitable institution. Fordham is precluded "from making any profit" prior to completion. The definition of Completion is critical and requires (para 304) the issuance of certificates of occupancy by the NYC Buildings Department "for all of the buildings provided for in the Site Plan of Said Project." There is no evidence that these have never been issued. Fordham has refused to provide the community with a copy of that Site Plan even though its counsel promised to do so in October of 2005. Fortunately, such a plan drawn by the University's architects, Voorhies, Walker et al, was published in the New York Times on Jan 21, 1959. It is obvious from that Plan that Fordham has failed to build a majority of the educational facilities that it promised to construct. The present podium, which effectively isolates the campus from the community, was not even present on the approved Plan. Fordham's sale of the land for luxury condominiums is a both a violation of its contract with the city and fundamental ethical principles. Fordham received the campus, which the city condemned under eminent domain for an educational center, at less than its cost to the city. It now intends to sell property that cost than $300,000 for $ 300,000,000. The poor families that were evicted from the site received $400 for their pains. Sidney Goldfischer, MD

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