NEW YORK CITY— A student at Fordham University in New York has been assaulted by a stranger on Fordham Road, a few feet from the Rose Hill campus in The Bronx, New York City.

Around 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16, J. C., a Spanish 22-year-old exchange student at Fordham, was heading to the Faculty Memorial Hall to attend a class at the university.
“I was going to be late, so I was walking faster than normal on Fordham Road, when I suddenly bumped into a man who was walking ahead of me”, J. C. said.

The stranger, an about 40-year-old black man, was limping on the street that was active and trafficked by several people at that moment. When J. C. accidentally collided with him, the man reacted aggressively, beginning to push the student to the curb of the street sidewalk.

As he stretched his coat and shoved his face with his hands, the man began to shout incomprehensible sentences according to the victim of the attack. Suddenly, he took J. C.’s glasses, ripped them from his eyes and threw them a few feet ahead. The glasses landed next to the wheel of a car just when the traffic light was red for vehicles.

“He was shouting at me in front of everyone but nobody stopped to help me”, the victim declares. When he saw the glasses on the floor, J. C. broke free from the man’s hands and ran to retrieve his glasses. According to his words, the student did not stop running until he reached the main entrance of the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University.

The student managed to reach the class he had to attend, but did not report what happened to the Public Safety department of the campus, since the class ended at 9 p.m. he was “too affected and just wanted to get home,” as the victim said.

The Public Safety department at Fordham University works to prevent these unfortunate events from happening. Each time a student suffers an assault and reports it to the university, the department sends a statement via email to all students reporting what happened.

According to the Public Safety department, since last October there have been reported four forcible touchings, an unauthorized access, two assaults and an assault with robbery.

Some Fordham students living in the Rose Hill campus say they feel insecure walking off campus at night and sometimes they don’t even dare to walk with their mobile phones in their hands for fear of being robbed.

Given the frequent cases of attacks and assaults on students, especially around the Rose Hill campus, the university has decided to extend the hours of the late-night shuttle service to the D train and to the Belmont community, where approximately 1,000 students reside.

As cited in the mail sent to inform students, the late-night shuttle service will be effective starting Friday, Jan. 24 beginning at 8 p.m. during the academic year, rather than the current 10 p.m. start time. The service of this means of transport will remain free of charge.

Beyond the late-night shuttle service, the university offers students an intercampus shuttle service, called “Ram Van”, to travel between the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Students can also use the Metro North Service until Fordham Road to reach the Rose Hill campus.