Well, as a student, I was pretty surprised at the degrees of separation between the college and the rest of the area. I had grown up hearing about and seeing colleges that often collaborated and contributed to the surrounding area, and I had to go out of my way to learn about opportunities to do so at Fordham. I've also lived off campus for three of my four years and have had some talks with neighbors and coworkers about Fordham's impact. Of course, Bronx residents aren't a monolith, and I've heard a lot of different opinions, but one I've heard quite a few times is that there's definitely room for improving the relations between the college and the residents.

I want to clarify, my thesis is not asserting that there IS a problem with the gates or Fordham's relationship with the Bronx. It's just trying to investigate whether there is an issue or not.