Fordham University: DigitalResearch@Fordham
Not a member yet
16374 research outputs found
Sort by
Hochberg, Herbert
No full textHerbert Hochberg, born in 1930, spent the first 10 years of his life in economic hardship because of the Great Depression. Both his parents migrated from Western Ukraine and lived in the Bronx since their marriage in 1928. They took in an infant to make end’s meet, and after the war his father went into the business of building two-family homes in the Bronx, while his mother stayed at home. Hochberg grew up across from Bronx Park until 1939 when his family moved to the newly developed Northeast Bronx near Allerton Avenue and Pelham Parkway. He describes the area as a mix of Jews, Italians, and Irish, with no minorities. All of his friends were Jewish. Hochberg describes the significance of education for his parents, and how his father saved up to buy him the typewriter he wanted.
Hochberg, after attending Columbus High School, attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at a time when he shares that most people would have never imagined attending a school outside of New York City. Hochberg explains he got a good education at Columbus and felt no difference at MIT from people who attended other, more prestigious schools. He felt the school was demanding, but never felt any culture shock coming from the Bronc. He participated in ROTC in college and, after attending Harvard Business School for his MBA, was a contracting officer in Philadelphia during the Korean War.
Hochberg describes joining the Boy Scouts and hiking in the country. He also would go up to the Catskills during the summers with his family, living in a dairy farmer’s lodge. While his father was religious, Hochberg was turned away from religion after reading the Bible in Hebrew and seeing how it differed from other English translations and considering the Holocaust. He still thought it was important to join a temple and bring his children as an adult. Today, he sees his own poorer upbringing as different from the affluence of his children and grandchildren, worrying they’ll be spoiled as opposed to the worries of his parents’ generation.
Keywords:
Ukraine, Columbus High School, the Great Depression, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School, Boy Scouts, race, Black, Hispanic, Scarsdale, Riverdale, Pelham Parkway, World War Two, Korean Wa
Patricia Payne Interview
No full textDisciplines
African American Studies Abstract
Summary by Jocelyn Defex.
This interview for the Bronx African American History Project was with Patricia Payne, a professor at Monroe College. She and Dr. Mark Naison discuss her family history and experiences growing up in the Patterson houses in the South Bronx.
Payne’s family moved to the Bronx from Harlem in 1949 and settled in the Patterson houses. Payne’s parents were from South Carolina; Her father worked as a taxman and auxiliary policeman, while her mother had limited formal education and worked occasionally as a domestic helper.
Patricia\u27s memories of the Paterson houses began when she attended kindergarten at PS 18, in building 291 on East 143rd Street. Her parents strongly emphasized the importance of academics in her household, and Patricia felt a responsibility to finish school and attend college due to her family\u27s background and expectations. She also noted that some girls her age had children and remained in the Paterson houses on welfare. Still, her family\u27s determination kept her focused on her education and goals.
Then, Dr. Mark Naison and Patricia Payne discuss the tracking of students at PS 18 and Junior High School in the Patterson houses during the 1950s and early 1960s. They mention that Payne and her peers were on an academic track and were part of the Gifted and Talented class. The interview reveals that the tracking system influenced the students\u27 perceptions of their intelligence.
The discussion also touches on the community in the Patterson houses during that era. Payne recalls that everyone knew everyone, and people from various ethnic backgrounds got along well. The projects were a clean and safe place to live, and many residents were optimistic about living there.
Moreover, the interview delves into teenage recreational activities, hobbies, and the emerging music culture of the time. Yet, they also talk about the emerging issue of teenage pregnancies and the increasing presence of heroin in the neighborhood during the late 1950s. Patricia explains that she noticed the drug problem earlier but did not negatively impact the community\u27s safety. However, as she became an adult, she saw changes in the community. Later, in the early 1960s, single-parent families started moving in from outside the neighborhood, changing the community’s character.
Afterward, the conversation switches to the changing role of the teacher; Payne describes how teachers in the past had more autonomy and respect from students and the educational system. The interview also introduces the numbers culture, with residents playing numbers games. Yet, by the late 1960s, the community had undergone significant changes, with the atmosphere being very different.
Finally, Payne discusses the declining conditions in the housing projects. More specifically, she mentions how the deterioration of the project\u27s environment and increased disregard for rules contributed to a sense of wanting to leave. The conversation also touches upon the impact of external events, like the Vietnam War, on the community and the return of individuals who struggled with addiction. The speaker reflects on her growing-up journey and describes the importance of helping students find better opportunities and being exposed to different perspectives
Rifkin, Howard
No full textHoward Rifkin was born in the Bronx. His grandparents, both maternal and paternal, were Orthodox Jews. However, Rifkin and his parents were not, although he was bar mitzvahed in an Orthodox synagogue, the Mount Eden Jewish Center. While Rifkin’s mother was a homemaker, she eventually worked as a bookkeeper for Maurice Ratner. His father worked as a truck driver.
For his education, Rifkin attended PS 70, Wade Junior High School, and Taft High School, all of which were within several blocks of his childhood home. Rifkin attended university for a few years at Pace College. However, he dropped out and joined the army. After his time in the military, Rifkin went back to Pace but found it difficult to manage working full-time while also going to school and being married, so he left the university.
Rifkin remembers his childhood as being positive and enjoyed the plethora of street games he and his friends would play. He is still in contact with many of his friends from the Bronx and reminisces on their time playing in the school band together. Rifkin had polio as a child but was treated early on and recovered fully, so it never hindered him physically or otherwise.
As an adult, Rifkin and his wife moved to Co-Op City, where both of their children were born. They would often take trips to a bungalow colony on the weekends and enjoyed a typical American family life. After a work opportunity presented itself, Rifkin and his family moved to Houston, Texas, where he still resides today.
Key Words:
Orthodox, Yiddish, PS 70, Wade Junior High School, Taft High School, Mount Eden Jewish Center, Street games, Polio, Co-Op City, Bungalow colony, Gun Hill Road, Willard Parker Hospital, Mount Eden Jewish Hospital, Montefiore Hospita
Sleep Disordered Breathing and Cognition Among Young Adults
No full textSleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a general term that describes a group of conditions where upper airway dysfunction results in an abnormal breathing pattern during sleep. Prevalence for SDB is estimated to be 9% for women and 24% for men in an adult population and has increased 14% to 55% depending on subgroups of age, sex, and SDB severity. SDB affects cognitive functioning in both adults and children alike, with impacts in executive functioning, attention, and various aspects of memory. Aside from neuropsychological domains, SDB is extensively linked to the development of dementia and may increase the odds of developing Alzheimer’s. To date, most of the studies on SDB have focused on either the older adult population or the pediatric population and few studies focusing on SDB have focused on young adults. The present study aims to close the existing gap in the literature by examining SDB among college students and its relationship to cognitive functioning using cross-sectional observational data. Although SDB and cognition were not found to be related, BMI significantly affected the relationship between SDB and attention measures, and anxiety symptoms as well as stress significantly affected the relationship between SDB and memory measures. The results of this study highlight the need to screen for SDB in a healthy young adult population. Young adults who experience high levels of anxiety and stress as well as young adults with high BMI should consider cognitive evaluation and also SDB evaluation by a healthcare provider
Essays in the Economics of Human Capital Accumulation
No full textA nationwide survey in 2019 found that 56 percent of children enrolled in grades 2-5 in government schools in India could not read a simple paragraph in their native language. This is commonly referred to as the “learning crisis” in developing countries, where there is a significant gap between schooling and learning. There are many reasons for such low levels of learning – high teacher absenteeism, poor health, limited intergenerational mobility, and limited returns from improved learning. In the first two chapters of my dissertation, I specifically examine two possible reasons for this learning crisis in India – supply-side constraints in education and low intergenerational mobility. In Chapter 1, I show that increases in demand for schooling induced by social welfare programs will fail to improve children’s learning unless accompanied by complementary investments in school governance and teacher accountability. My findings highlight the importance of supply-side changes, such as reducing teacher absenteeism, in bridging the gap between schooling and learning in India. In Chapter 2, I study intergenerational mobility in rural India to estimate the extent to which parental education determines their children’s learning. My findings show high intergenerational mobility when I use educational attainment as a measure of economic status and low intergenerational mobility when I use mother’s and child’s learning ability as a measure of economic status. These results highlight limited mobility as another potential reason for explaining India’s declining educational productivity. In Chapter 3, I move away from factors that hinder human capital accumulation and instead study how human capital accumulated in primary school can impact later-life marriage and fertility outcomes for adults in Indonesia. I provide causal evidence that staying longer in primary school raises the age at first marriage later in life. These findings highlight that spending more time in school can potentially improve the pervasive problem of early marriage in developing countries. Overall, my dissertation contributes to education research in the economics literature focusing on two large developing countries, India and Indonesia
Pre-Assembly Methods for Cognitive Diagnostic Multistage Adaptive Testing
No full textCognitive Diagnostic Multistage Adaptive Testing (CD-MST) enables classifying whether students have mastered several content areas while maximizing both the efficiency and accuracy of the test by administering a personalized test to each student. Cognitive Diagnostic Multistage Adaptive Test (CD-MST) with module preassembly is a new test mode integrating the advantages of CDMs and MST. In order to take full advantage of CD-MST and implement it for real-world applications, it is crucial to develop preassembly methods that are capable of incorporating a variety of content constraints without a severe loss in estimation precision. However, the issue of how to strategically model the CD-MST modules while considering multiple content constraints has not yet been addressed in the literature.This study proposes holistic CD-MST preassembly methods to simultaneously consider measurement precision and content constraints by incorporating an item selection method for CD-CAT (Lin & Chang, 2018) into Liao and Jiao (under review)’s CD-MST preassembly method
Mangum, Claude
No full textSummary by Eliza Anderson.
Dr. Claude Mangum is an integral member of the Fordham community, arriving first as the director of the Upward Bound program in 1969 before joining the faculty of the Institute of Afro-American Studies, which would later become the Department of African and
African-American Studies. Dr. Mangum was an assistant professor, associate professor, and chair of the department before his retirement in 2011.
Dr. Mangum began his educational career as a high school teacher, attending Queen’s College before starting to teach at John Bowne High School in Flushing, Queens. He completed a Masters and PHD at Columbia Teachers College, but saw his vocation as continuing to work in the public school system to help disadvantaged students attend university. His journey at Fordham began when he took on a part-time position with the Upward Bound program, allowing him to work closely with students of color to prepare them for success in college. Dr. Mangum’s office was on the second floor of Dealy Hall, across the hall from Dr. Mark Naison, Dr. Quentin Bernard Wilkes, and the newly formed Institute of Afro-American Studies. He described this space as a “refuge” for students who felt unwelcome at the university. It was here that Dr. Naison and the other Institute faculty convinced Dr. Mangum to join the university as a professor.
As a professor in the Institute of Afro-American Studies, Dr. Mangum was able to teach a diverse set of students in African and African-American history courses that were then part of the Fordham core curriculum. The popularity of these classes within the Institute would later lead to organized pushback from other departments against their inclusion in the core. It wouldn’t be until six years into the Institute that a woman faculty member joined the ranks, and Dr. Mangum witnessed the changes in the university as it became co-educational in 1974. After the Institute was transformed into the Department of African and African-American Studies, he and Dr. Naison threatened to leave Fordham after the university refused to hire Dr. Mark Chapman, a scholar in Black religion. Their efforts resulted in Dr. Chapman’s appointment to the AFAM Department. In his years as a Fordham professor, Dr. Mangum witnessed many racial barriers that existed for students of color at the university, including barriers to medical school entrance and discriminatory treatment resulting from the walls that separated the university from
the Bronx. He reflects on his teaching style as interactive and supportive, drawing from his experience as a high school teacher and placing significant emphasis on students developing
their own research interests
Maribel Gonzalez Interview Part 2
No full textSummarized by Alan C. Ventura
Maribel Gonzalez is a small business owner in the Bronx and serves as sole operator of The South of France restaurant. As part of the Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project, she sits with Fordham University senior Bethany Fernandez to share her experience of running a business during the pandemic.
Gonzalez reflects on how her business has progressed along with COVID-19 protocols since her first interview in June 2020. She discusses the ongoing challenges of running a business during the pandemic, with uncertainty and financial struggles continuing to persist with the passage of time. The flow of income brought in by The South of France remains inconsistent due to COVID-19 restrictions, despite new allowances like 25% indoor seating.
Gonzalez reiterates the challenges of operating a restaurant during the pandemic, including the need to buy ingredients in smaller quantities more frequently, leading to higher costs. Furthermore, she explains that, because of the pandemic, it has become harder to find essential items like hand sanitizer and masks due to increased demand and limited availability. Much of Gonzalez’ consternation stems from a lack of support in providing these supplies from the city—the very entity enforcing these requirements. Other factors like the plastic bag ban and the necessity to invest in heating supplies due to changing weather conditions have proved to apply more of a strain on small businesses.
A general lack of clear communication and consistent guidelines from the city is causing frustration and challenges for small businesses. Expanding outdoor seating, as an example, has also been a problem for Gonzalez due not only to high costs and logistical issues in finding quality furniture but also to the need to comply with city barricading guidelines. Small business owners are feeling overwhelmed and uncertain due to frequent changes in guidelines and requirements, leading to investment in other resources for information and support. These twists and turns have taken an immense financial and emotional toll on Gonzalez as she struggles to keep herself and her employees financially stable.
Gonzalez stresses the importance of enforcing mask-wearing and social distancing rules within her place of business. She opines on the challenges of enforcing COVID-19 safety protocols in her restaurant, including dealing with customers who don\u27t follow the rules and the threat of large fines for non-compliance. In spite of this, she maintains a positive attitude and hope during the trying times—even when facing issues with frustrated customers not adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.
In the midst of all of the challenges, Gonzalez continues to operate The South of France in the hopes that things will get better. She encourages everyone to support their local businesses and to uplift one another as we all collectively navigate through these difficult times
Koppel, Mark
No full textMark Koppel was born in October 1942 at Bronx Hospital. He first lived on 245 East Gun Hill Road before moving to Chicago with his family while his father served in World War II. Following the war, Koppel’s family moved back to the Bronx and settled in an apartment on 167th Street and College Avenue. He remembers the enighborhood he grew up in being predominantly Jewish and the close friendships he made with the other kids in his neighborhood and the street games they would play together.
Koppel’s family was not religiously observant growing up. However, Koppel had a Bar Mitzvah and remembers learning Hebrew and Yidish and a child. For his education Koppel started at PS 53 before moving to PS 94 when his family moved houses. He recalls his elementary schools being racially diverse with a mix of Black, Irish, and Jewish children. However, there were racial disparities within which classes students were placed in. He was in the Special Program, 1 class, and remembers having a fun and engaging education. For middle school he attended Jordan L. Mott Junior High School (MS 22), which he remembers as being almost entirely Jewish. For high school Koppel attended Bronx Science before going to Columbia for his undergraduate degree and Northwestern for his continued education to become a psychologist.
Koppel remembers growing up as a gay man during the 50s as well as the migration of Jews out of the Bronx begining in the 1960s as the demographics of Bronx neighborhoods began changing. Today Koppel splits his year between living in Somers, New York and Hawaii
The Impact of Social Network Friendship on Lending Behaviors: An Empirical Analysis of Peer-to-Peer Lending in China
No full textThis dissertation builds on the theoretical framework of information asymmetry, signaling theory, and social network, and empirically studies the impact of social network friendship on peer-to-peer lending (P2P). Using the P2P lending data from China, it studies how social network affects the lending willingness in China’s P2P lending. In particular, it examines the effect of social network on the adverse selection in P2P lending in China, and the effect of social network on interest and default rates. It also explores how P2P loans use the advantages in low-cost customer acquisition and fast matching to provide better customer experience and to satisfy the financing demand of retail clients and small and micro enterprises.
The dissertation combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, based on the interviews with 18 interviewers for empirical qualitative analysis and questionnaire survey for quantitative analysis.
Our analysis shows that social network friendship can reduce the information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders and reduce borrowing costs for borrowers. Social network friendship also increases the likelihood of P2P loan, but it has no impact on both interest rate charged by lenders or default rate.
Overall, the results above suggest a positive influence of social network on P2P lending behavior. The dissertation also proposes suggestions for future regulation, with respect to how to regulate P2P platform, how to improve financing access for retail borrowers and small and micro enterprises, and how to promote the sustainable development of P2P lending platform