YU Consolidates Undergraduate Schools Under Single Administrative Office
YU’s undergraduate deans announced the creation of a unified Office of Undergraduate Education on Jan. 30, consolidating the all undergraduate programs under a single administrative structure.
The new office will bring together Stern College for Women, Yeshiva College, the Sy Syms School of Business, Undergraduate Torah Studies for Men, Torah and Spiritual Life for Women and the Dean of Students Office under one umbrella, according to an email sent to students. The consolidation comes as part of Project Yamim, described in the email as an “undergraduate-wide strategic planning process.”
Dean Rebecca Cypess is leading the initiative together with Dean Sara Asher, Dean James Camara, Dean Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky, Dean Shoshana Schechter, and Dean Michael Strauss, alongside Erica Brown and Yael Muskat, Cypess told The Commentator.
The consolidation is meant to help the different undergraduate schools and student offices work more closely together.
“Our goal is to ensure effective communication and collaboration across all these offices, so we can provide our students with a seamless educational experience that is deeply rooted in our institutional mission,” Cypess said.
Project Yamim was first announced Aug. 25 in an email from Dean Asher. Its earliest visible change was an overhaul of student clubs, requiring all organizations to reapply under revised guidelines emphasizing alignment with YU’s new values requirements. The process prompted confusion among students leading the Office of Student Life to hold a town hall clarifying the new guidelines. On Nov. 10, approved clubs were notified; Hareini and the AMC Club were not among them.
This fall, administrators conducted six focus groups with faculty and students to assess the undergraduate experience. Cypess told The Commentator that these discussions, moderated by Brown, identified several priorities, including student well-being, academic programming and campus culture.
The email stated that based on the gathered feedback, the administration established the Committee on Campus Culture to improve in three main areas: creating a space where everyone feels included, maintaining academic integrity and supporting out-of-town students. The committee — composed of faculty, staff, Roshei Yeshiva and student representatives — meets monthly. Each operates through subcommittees dedicated to each area.
Cypess, who chairs the academic integrity subcommittee, said the group has already implemented several measures including adding academic integrity questions to end-of-semester course evaluations last fall.
A separate faculty group is developing a unified Core Curriculum that would replace the current general education requirements which vary according to each school. Cypess told The Commentator that any changes would apply only to general education courses, not to majors or minors.
“We are aiming to provide a signature educational experience that is tailored to our unique institution, driven by our mission and service to our students,” she said, adding that students can expect further details later this semester.
YU is also expanding professional development opportunities for faculty in two areas: deepening the faculty’s “knowledge of our institutional mission and our students” and sharing “best practices in teaching,” according to Cypess.
“Faculty come to their positions with deep expertise in their own discipline, but they may not know what goes on in other areas of our institution,” Cypess told The Commentator. She added that faculty will also have expanded access to sessions addressing topics including artificial intelligence, academic integrity, mentorship, evaluation and assessment of student learning outcomes.
According to the Jan. 30 email, administrators plan to release a “provisional mission statement” for undergraduate programs soon and distribute anonymous surveys to students and faculty to know what to focus on going forward.
“I’m very happy with the broader YAMIM project,” Noam Schechter (YC ‘27) told The Commentator. “I think it is very important to live the values we preach as a Jewish university, and to really give those values over to the student body. The inconveniences it may be causing in the beginning stages may be annoying, but showing that we are an Orthodox institution, with real Torah values, is so vital to who we are and what we believe.”
Photo Caption: Yeshiva University
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University
