By Gabriella Gomperts, Features Editor
In recent years, maintaining academic integrity at Yeshiva University has been an uphill battle. With jam-packed class schedules, easy access to online resources and the rising popularity of Artificial Intelligence (AI), students are often tempted to take shortcuts that undermine their integrity and education. In response to ongoing violations, the YU administration along with student leadership revamped the Academic Integrity Committee (AIC) that was created five years ago.
Students in leadership positions on both the Beren and Wilf campuses approached Dean Rebecca Cypess over the summer when she began her role as Dean of Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women to address the problem of academic integrity.
Shalhevet Cohen (SSSB ‘25), Beren Campus Student Government President, was one of the students who reached out to the YU administration. “Through a cohort of deans and students, the committee aims to pinpoint areas that need strengthening in this respect and implement plans to fix them,” Cohen told the YU Observer.
In a statement to the YU Observer, Dean Cypess, Dean Yosef Kalinsky, and Dean Noam Wasserman said that they and student representatives have been meeting regularly to reinforce a culture of academic integrity across YU’s undergraduate programs. “Other universities have challenges with academic integrity. Yeshiva University can and should be different,” the statement said. “Living a life of halakha and kedusha means living up to a higher standard of integrity.”
The recent updates to the committee are set to address students’ usage of generative AI like ChatGPT and to further standardize the administration’s cheating policies. “The deans worked with the AIC to create a strong process, as well as best practices for faculty and clear expectations for all students,” the statement said. “Integrity has steadily become stronger, and we are now looking to involve everyone in getting violations of the policy to zero.”
The co-chairs of YU’s Academic Integrity Committee, Professor Nora Nachumi and Professor James Camara, reiterated that the purpose of the committee is to standardize university policies when dealing with these types of infractions. The committee sees a need for the university to have a measured policy to ensure fairness for all students.
“We needed to have consistency in the treatment and the penalties. And so, what a number of people before me, and most especially Professor Camara did, was create standardized policies and standardized practices to address academic integrity violations,” Nachumi told the YU Observer.
The goal of the committee is not to punish students, but to investigate claims and to deal with student and teacher disputes. The committee gathers evidence and interviews the student and teacher to come to an objective conclusion, and consequences can be determined from there.
“We wanted to create a culture in which violations are not okay. And there’s a standard process for dealing with it, and that it’s a supportive process. It’s not punitive,” Nachumi said.
At the same time, in April, 2024, the YU Observer wrote about YU students who were falsely accused of cheating with AI and the challenging experiences they had with the Academic Integrity Committee.
Although the process of investigating academic violations can be stressful for both students and faculty members, developing the committee further is ultimately worth it for the welfare of the student body. “We’re all very committed to it because we all not only believe in the importance of academic integrity, but also understand the impact that it has on students,” Camara told the YU Observer. “We want to make sure that we do everything we can to make the process fair and human.”
Rivka Krause (SCW ‘25) is critical of the cheating culture at YU. “ I think the cheating culture here deflates the value of everybody’s grades because people who actually put in effort and do not cheat receive the same grades as people who cheat,” Krause told the YU Observer. “That completely ruins the value of getting an A.”
Krause is unsure if the administration getting involved will realistically help remedy the problem. “I think it’s a culture problem. If a top down ‘we’re punishing people’ situation will help get rid of that culture problem, then yeah great,” she said. “But again, it’s a culture problem and people need to look themselves in the mirror and realize that they’re doing something that is completely unethical and it’s subverting the entire value of getting an education.”
Photo Caption: YU’s Wilf campus
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University