Keynote and Honorees at Commencement 2015
Dr. Ruth Wisse, former professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard University, will be giving the keynote address at Commencement 2015. Wisse is a literary and social critic, senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund, and author of numerous books, her latest entitled No Joke: Making Jewish Humor.
Honorary doctorates will be conferred by YU President Richard M. Joel to: Peter Frates, a former NCAA Division I athlete and captain of the Boston College baseball team, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2012. Frates, a longtime activist for ALS awareness and research support, helped launch the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral phenomenon that raised more than $100 million in donations for the ALS Association in 2014; and Martin Greenfield, Holocaust survivor, men’s fashion legend, and author of Measure of a Man: From Auschwitz Survivor to Presidents Tailor.
Finally, Pearl Berger, retiring dean of libraries at YU, will be awarded the Presidential Medallion. Berger has served as the dean of libraries since 1985 and is credited with instituting the technological organizational system of the YU libraries, which has served as a model for other Judaica libraries. Commencement will take place on Sunday, May 17th at noon at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
SCW Political Science Department Welcomes New Faculty
April 29th – Political Science Department Chair Dr. Joseph Luders announced that there will be several new courses offered next semester by new and visiting faculty. Visiting from the CUNY Graduate Center is Professor Joanna Phua, who will be teaching two courses: East Asian Politics and Globalization. Phua is fluent in Mandarin and was trained at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Visiting from the New School for Social research is Professor Paul Londrigan, who will be teaching Intro to Comparative Politics: Challenges for Democracy and Development. A new course, Essentials of the US Legal System, will be taught by Mr. Joel Strass, Esq., a practicing attorney at Kaplan Fox and a graduate of YC and Cardozo School of Law. The department also welcomes Professor Matthew Holbreich, a fellow at YU’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, who will be teaching Shakespeare and Politics. The descriptions of these exciting new courses, as well as the rest of the political science course offerings, can be found on the YU website at <http://yu.edu/stern/ug/political-science/courses/>
Campus Couple Says Farewell
It is with heavy hearts that the Beren Campus bids farewell to Jonathan and Esty Schwab, the Campus Couple. Schwab and Esty have been the Campus Couple for two and a half years, and will be leaving the post due to Schwab’s new position in the Wilf Campus Office of University Housing and Residence Life. Schwab and Esty will be moving uptown to Washington Heights. In an email to students, Schwab and Esty thanked the students and expressed how, “we are truly grateful to have gotten to know so many of you, and if we leave with any regret, it is that we could not meet more of you.” Schwab and Esty will be hosting a “Schmooze with the Schwabs” on the weekend of May 8th/9th and will be here for the last Shabbat of the semester. We wish them much success in all of their future endeavors.
President Joel Shares The View from YU
On May 1st, the university launched “The View from YU,” a digest of campus-related news which will be e-mailed out to the YU community twice monthly. According to the first “View,” the digest comes after requests were made for more frequent communication between the university and the YU community. The digest will feature “achievements and progress,” according to President Joel in the e-mail, as well as updates about “the challenges we face from time-to-time.” All subsequent digests will be sent not from the President, but from the Office of Communications and Public Affairs.