CIA Officer to Speak at Fordham

Michael Sulick, Director of the National Clandestine Service will give the lecture in Keating First Auditorium at 7 p.m. on March 25, the banner event in this year’s Fordham Week. Sulick has been at this post in the Central Intelligence Agency since 2007, having previously served in the Agency from 1980 to 2004. Sulick, who oversees the United States’s human intelligence and espionage operations, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fordham in Russian studies and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York.

The United Student Government Inaugural Lecture in Leadership and Government Service will be part of Fordham Week, to be held immediately after the upcoming spring break. This year’s theme is slated to be “Fantastic Fordham,” referencing the comic book and film franchise The Fantastic Four, and it will center on superheroes. Spanning March 22-27, the event will be a celebration of all things Fordham.

Sulick’s visit to campus, which is expected to begin an annual series of on-campus lectures, is due to sustained USG efforts to bring more high-profile speakers to Fordham.

“In my sophomore year, I was disappointed to see a decline in the number of quality lectures that were taking place,” John Tully Gordon, FCRH ’10, executive president of United Student Government said.

According to Gordon, in that same year, USG drafted a resolution calling for an increase in the number of speakers visiting campus and improved funding to bring them here. As a result of this legislation, USG has cosponsored many high profile events that have come to campus, including lectures given by Newt Gingrich, Howard Dean and Jessica Valenti.

Speaking of Sulick, Gordon praised his government and defense service.

“I think that by bringing him to Fordham we’re showing students that there are still very important and meaningful lines of work you can be committed to in public service,” Gordon said.

“I just want to express how excited we are that someone of this caliber is volunteering to come to Fordham as an alum and speak to government service to Fordham students and faculty,” Patrick Scotti, FCRH ’10, USG executive president of student life and the lead organizer of Fordham Week, said.

He and Gordon also spoke highly of Fordham alumni and their careers in public service, with Gordon saying that he hoped Sulick and his experiences could prove “relatable” to students given their common educations.

Gordon and Scotti said that finding a Fordham alumnus to speak for the event was of great importance so as to make the idea of government service more accessible to students, so that they can see what people have done with their Fordham educations.

Regarding lectures and the tentative lecture series as a whole, Gordon expressed his wish for students to take advantage of opportunities like Sulick’s visit to campus, calling such events “a significant part of the Fordham academic experience.” Similarly, Scotti hoped that the lecture series would prove informative and educational, so that students are not “relying on movies” for their perceptions of government organizations, in particular those like the CIA.

Although appropriate given USG’s desire to showcase the talents and achievements of extraordinary Fordham alumni, this year’s theme of “Fantastic Fordham,” in keeping with the organization’s desire to focus the Week on Fordham, its students and its organizations as much as possible, will be secondary to the week’s events.

“In the past, I had always noticed that Fordham Week always seemed to be a clever theme; the theme came first and the events came second,” Scotti said. “That just didn’t sit right with me.”

According to Scotti, a goal of USG this semester was to reverse that order and “make sure that we’re getting the whole University involved,” including academic departments and Campus Ministry in addition to the numerous clubs and organizations that are already represented in the week’s festivities.

Regarding these other facets that USG wishes to showcase, Scotti specifically mentioned the State of the University Address given by Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, on March 24 and Sulick’s lecture the following day. He also mentioned cosponsorships with such groups as the African-American studies department among other groups.

In addition to the Inaugural Lecture on Leadership and Government Service and the annual State of the University Address, Fordham Week will include such events as performances by on-campus arts groups and a Midnight Breakfast on March 24.