NEW YORK (AP) — Tania Tetlow is considered a trailblazer. She was the first woman and the first layperson to serve as president of two Jesuit schools – first at Loyola University in New Orleans and now at Fordham University in New York City.
Fordham was previously Catholic priests – all men, of course – since its founding in 1841.
Tetlow has succeeded in these groundbreaking roles – and was even the first Fordham president to sing the national anthem at Yankee Stadium. But she is acutely aware of the challenges she – and other college presidents – face as they deal with tight budgets, political attacks on higher education and Divisions within their student body from the war between Israel and Hamas.
What is the biggest challenge for her as she begins her third year at Fordham?
“How much there is to juggle,” she replied in an interview.
“These are enormously complicated institutions with so many different interest groups,” she said. “How do you navigate the recent controversy and still move the university forward?”
It has already faced criticism from some students for raising tuition by more than 10% over the past two years. Tuition plus fees will cost nearly $63,000 for full-time students in 2024-25; room and board could cost another $18,000 to $26,000.
“Bridging the gap between what they can afford and the excellence they deserve is becoming increasingly difficult,” Tetlow said. “It’s important to understand that these goals are in tension with each other.”
Even more difficult for Tetlow was in many ways the coordination of her reactions to the war between Israel and Hamas – a sensitive issue at a predominantly Catholic university where about 2.5 percent of the approximately 10,000 students are Jews and 5 percent are Muslims.
Last year, three days after the October 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage, Tetlow issued a opinion and expressed his horror at “the murder and abduction of innocents, from elderly Holocaust survivors to children, and the resulting war.”
“For many of our Jewish students, colleagues and alumni, this is another brutal reminder of their vulnerability and of rising anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world,” she said. “Many of our Muslim students, colleagues and alumni also fear collective blame and reprisal and are concerned about violence and discrimination.”
Fordham’s Muslim Students Association president Hajer Merarda told the university’s student-run newspaper she was outraged by the statement. She was quoted in The Fordham Ram as criticizing Tetlow’s “biased, one-sided rhetoric” and omission of the words “Palestine” and “Palestinian.”
In a subsequent Statement of 7 November and an interview with student journalists in February, Tetlow sought to express empathy and support for students across the ideological spectrum who were negatively affected by the war.
“I really want to comfort the students who are in so much pain,” she told reporters. “I find myself in the embarrassing position of revealing to them that I have less power than they think.”
Tensions remained high throughout the academic year.
On May 1, pro-Palestinian protesters organized an encampment in the main lobby of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan. (The main campus is in the Bronx.) The university called the police, who arrested 15 protesters who refused to leave the premises.
“It was all about the physical protection of the campus,” Tetlow said afterward. “Fordham students have a right to feel safe and complete their exams. Period.”
Before the start of the new academic year this week, Tetlow reflected on the challenges of the past year.
“Our job is not to get involved in every controversial issue,” she said. “We provide comfort to our community.”
Given the conflict between Israel and Hamas, this task has been “incredibly difficult, because to comfort one side is to provoke the other,” Tetlow said.
“I tried very hard. But I stumbled many times along the way. It’s so hard to find the right words.”
Nevertheless, Tetlow survived the past year better than many of her colleagues, including three women who resigned as presidents of Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania in the wake of controversy over their handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Tetlow did not rule out that sexism was one of the reasons for the criticism of these women in Ivy League leadership positions, a topic she is well acquainted with, having broken gender barriers at Loyola New Orleans and Fordham University.
“Of course I’ve faced these obstacles,” she said. “Once you realize they exist, it’s easier to overcome them.”
She added, “At Fordham, for every person who sees this as a game-changer, there are a dozen others who are excited.”
When asked about the Catholic Church’s deep-rooted refusal to ordain women as priests, Tetlow gave a nuanced answer.
“For centuries, nuns have run schools and hospitals, proving that there is nothing women cannot do,” she said. “And yet the hierarchy still excludes half of humanity.”
Tetlow added that her mother, a Bible scholar, taught her that Jesus “obviously made a special effort to connect with women.”
“The religious teachings are there,” Tetlow said. “I hope the church continues to listen to them more.”
Tetlow has also made it clear that she differs from official Catholic teaching on LGBTQ+ issues. The Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage and condemns any sexual relationship between gay or lesbian partners as “inherently dysfunctional.”
Last year, she delivered the keynote address at the annual conference of Outreach, a Jesuit-backed initiative to promote the Church’s acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics.
“I am here to tell you that you are loved and filled with the overwhelming love and acceptance of God,” Tetlow told the audience at a Catholic church across from the Fordham campus in Manhattan.
Jesuit priest Reverend James Martin, who founded Outreach 2022, said Tetlow was “the perfect person” to lead the conference.
“She spoke movingly about her sister, who is a lesbian, and her efforts to welcome LGBTQ students, faculty and staff to campus,” Martin said via email.
Tetlow assesses developments at the national level and notes that higher education is “becoming a political football.”
“It’s so much easier to tear down an institution than to build one,” she said.
In such a climate, she is grateful to be where she is.
“I’m proud to have helped Fordham reaffirm who we are – a Jesuit institution in New York that is determined to figure out how we can make a difference in a truly broken world.”
“The advantage we currently have as a religious university is the opportunity to speak openly about values and beliefs,” she added. “At secular institutions, this is more difficult because they have to be afraid of offending people.”
Tetlow’s Connections to Fordham go back a long way. Her parents met there when they were still doctoral students; her father was a priest at the time, but gave up the priesthood to get married.
Tetlow grew up mostly in New Orleans and attended Tulane University before attending Harvard Law School. She returned to Louisiana and worked in private law before spending five years as a federal prosecutor.
Over the summer, Tetlow said, she and her colleagues at Fordham planned to launch what they called “Project Grace,” a project aimed at reaching students who are “rightfully very angry” about issues such as climate change, political polarization and ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
“It’s a teachable moment. … How to channel your passions in productive ways when terrible things happen,” Tetlow said.
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