University Completes Renovations and Touch-Ups to Start Semester

This summer, renovations began on the Wilf Campus of Yeshiva University, most notably to Furst Hall.

According to Randy Apfelbaum, Chief Facilities and Administrative Officer at Yeshiva University, the Yeshiva College Honors lounge is being moved from the basement of Furst Hall to Room C-10 of its cellar. The now-vacated basement area will be used for a new Incubator Lab. This lab will be used to further the goals of the Israel Business Incubator Project, an idea formulated in 2016 by Dean Strauss and the General Counsel’s office. The project will use the lab space to create offices for Israeli startups and allow student interns to run the offices with oversight from Sy Syms faculty. The Incubator Lab and Israel Business Incubator Project were given a major push forward last year with a $350,000 grant from New York State Senator Todd Kaminsky.

Additional renovations to other parts of campus are also being completed. The Danziger Lawn, which over the past year lost much of its grass due to heavy rain and snow, is now being re-sodded. There is now a new walkway which cuts through the lawn in order to improve foot traffic to Rubin Hall and the Max Stern Athletic Center. Additionally, all buildings on Wilf Campus now have Con Edison gas installations to improve heating and the audio-visual equipment in many classrooms has been upgraded. In Furst Hall, urinal wall dividers have been installed in the bathrooms and lights have been replaced in classrooms.

The dormitories on both Wilf and Beren campuses have had an improved Wi-Fi system known as Privatel installed since August 27, 2018. For the past five years, Yeshiva University had a contract with Verizon and each dorm room had its own individual Verizon Fios router. This system led to spotty service and required a student to enter in a new Wi-Fi password for each dorm room they entered. Privatel solved many of issues posed by the old routers by having a singular Wi-Fi network with the same login credentials as a student’s YU Wireless account and providing 24/7 support staff.  Jonathan Schwab, Director of University Housing and Residence Life, noted that “this new system is way easier to navigate” and “it makes housing into one big network which adds another communal aspect to housing on campus.”  

Additionally, the television screens on the second floor of Glueck are in full working order and will show an image of whoever is giving a sicha or shiur on the first floor of Glueck.

Besides for its basement, the Furst Hall lobby has also had some new additions added to it. A replica of the Arch of Titus Menorah Relief Panel, which in the beginning of the year was located in the Yeshiva University Museum and then moved to the Heights Lounge, is now permanently residing in the lobby of Furst Hall. Dr. Steven Fine, Director of the Center for Israel Studies, stated that the relief panel “reflects YU innovation and scholarship at its most colorful,” and “it pushes forward both Torah and Maddah, and I am glad that our president and his team have decided to preserve it for years to come.” The Relief Panel will be officially inaugurated on Chanukah with a menorah lighting ceremony.

The work done to Yeshiva University this past summer shows the efforts being made to fix up the campus over the past 2 years. The construction of a new plaza between Furst Hall and the Glueck Center and Gottesman Library, the repair of the hot tub in the Max Stern Athletic Center and the refurbishing of the Belfer Hall lobby with a new paint job, tiled floors and TV screens are features of improved campus facilities.