During club hour on Wednesday, March 18th, President Richard Joel, along with Provost Selma Botman and Shira Yoshor, a Board of Trustees member and Chair of the Stern College board, met with concerned Stern College students in the Gottesman board room to discuss the changes that are being made to the undergraduate programs and the institution’s overall financial situation. While the meeting was offered to fifty students on a first come- first serve basis, approximately twenty-five students were present at the meeting. However, despite the small number of attendees, multiple important questions were raised and the discussion progressed for about an hour and a half.
President Joel opened the meeting with a statement that would be issued later that day regarding the merging of the undergraduate faculties of Stern College for Women and Yeshiva College under the auspicious leadership of current dean of SCW, Karen Bacon. He explained that as “Super Dean,” Dean Bacon will have offices on both the Wilf and Beren campuses, with an associate dean specific to each campus below her. Dean Eichler, who is currently the dean of Yeshiva College, will be taking a much deserved sabbatical next year, and will return afterwards as a professor to YC. The new unified undergraduate faculty would split their time between YC and SCW, following the model of the current History and Economics departments, both of which functioned under a joint YC/SCW faculty this past semester. The proposed merging is expected to be fully operational in three years.
Merging the undergraduate departments across the board is a much bigger endeavor than combining select departments. Avigayil Bachrach, President and Executive Producer of Shield News and SCW Senior, inquired what the broad affecting issues of the merger will be. President Joel responded that it is not viable to have two separate arts and sciences faculties for under 2000 undergraduate students. Provost Botman defined the merger as a “consolidation [that] will create an increase in curricular opportunities as faculties consider multiple demographics.”
President Joel reiterated that the administration is committed to ensuring that the smallest reductions possible will be made in the academic sector, and that the creation of this merger should not cause negative changes to students’ undergraduate experience. He asked the group whether they had felt their academic experience negatively affected thus far; when the attending students denied noticing major recent changes on the Beren campus, President Joel explained that this is because Dean Bacon has been gradually tightening the belt of the SCW budget over the past few years.
Regarding the rumored cuts to YC’s first year writing seminar and to the lowering of the academic Judaic studies requirements, President Joel confirmed that these two proposals are indeed on the table. Currently, YC’s writing program for first year students includes both a writing class, comparable to the Composition and Rhetoric requirement on the SCW campus, and a separate seminar for the following semester. Thus, their current writing program spans across two semesters at a large financial cost. The proposal is to have a single semester composition course, and then different majors will implement writing-centered classes, similar to the model at Stern College. When this proposal went for a vote amongst the faculty, 80% voted to take away the writing seminar as opposed to making larger cuts elsewhere in the department. In terms of the Judaic studies program, President Joel clarified that the proposal is to cut down on the number of courses YC students have to take to fulfill their Judaic studies requirements, not to diminish the number of courses being offered. President Joel emphasized that they would not be firing any tenured Jewish studies faculty from either campus.
President Joel did confirm that there will regrettably be some very limited faculty cuts over the next three months. He estimated that about four contract faculty members will be cut, and that the faculty cuts will be predominantly from the uptown campus in order to correct the disproportionately high student to faculty ratio at YC.
While explaining the complexities of the budget issues, President Joel stated that the “mess has nothing to do with the past.” This statement was startling to many, including Editor- in- Chief of The Observer, Elana Kook, who asked for clarification, noting that “in order to have gotten to where we are today in terms of the financial crisis and the necessity to make any cuts at all, there must have been major oversights in the past.”
President Joel elaborated on his earlier remark and said that the university had been spending more than it had, and that YU as an institution has been in a “historically challenging system of finance.” He explained that the reporting system and the system of finance had not been working in congruence, and that there was also a decrease in the endowment due to the approximately 5.5% that Einstein required for research expenditures. He also mentioned that the loss the university suffered through Madoff obviously hurt the finances of the university tremendously. President Joel did claim responsibility as the president of the university regarding all financial troubles.
Continuing the discussion regarding spending, Esti Hirt, SCW Sophomore, questioned whether there is a value in spending university money on community-oriented programs such as the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF). She said that “even if the amount of money spent on such programs is minimal,[it could be going toward]proven academic successes like YC’s first year writing seminar, or investing in another good humanities professor. First and foremost, are we not an academic institution?”
President Joel responded that the CJF will in fact be undergoing significant cuts this coming year, and that percentage-wise it will endure greater cuts than those from the academic program. President Joel went on to emphasize his belief in the importance of learning and extending education beyond the classroom, a point that no one had actually challenged. He and Botman each returned to this point at separate times later in the meeting, defending the value in learning through different outlets that were never questioned. However, students never questioned the value of learning through different outlets, rather the practical ramifications in terms of allocating funds.
SCW Sophomore Miriam Pearl Klahr, asked what will be done to improve transparency of communication between the administration and students, and the administration and faculty. President Joel replied that often proposed actions cannot legally be revealed to the public until they are finalized. However, he said that Provost Botman has had at least sixty meetings with the different departments, the faculty, and the department chairs over the past couple of months. In addition, students were informed about the merger the afternoon following the night that it was revealed to the faculty. Additionally, President Joel offered his email address, saying that students are always welcome to email him with questions. President Joel added that the faculty cuts will not be announced publicly, as the affected faculty have the right to their privacy.
The final question presented at the meeting was in regards to whether the undergraduate school would ever pursue the idea of offering more co- educational classes, a question that was met with a firm “No” from both President Joel and Provost Botman; President Joel made it clear that mixed classes for undergraduate students are not ideal, in his view.
Throughout the meeting, President Joel reiterated his intentions to be available to the students, and that YC and SCW students are his top priority. He said that if there was student interest for more meetings of this sort, students should organize and coordinate meeting times with his staff. Following the meeting, multiple students gathered to discuss the idea of putting together a board of students to meet with President Joel about changes taking place in the school. The members of this board would gather research and represent student opinion to President Joel while he is making decisions regarding these pressing issues.