YU Grants Tenure to 17 Professors, Appoints Two as Full Professors

Over the summer, the Yeshiva University Board of Trustees awarded tenure to 17 faculty members across the university’s undergraduate and graduate programs.

The university announced the decision in a press release disseminated on July 13, which provided a list of the professors in question and elaborated on some of the professors’ research interests in their respective fields.

Dr. Karen Bacon, the Mordecai D. Katz and Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences, expressed satisfaction with the decision. “The tenure track faculty at YU are those individuals who wish to make their careers at this University and those to whom we are equally committed,” she wrote in an email.  “When the time comes to consider these teacher/scholars for tenure, and the internal and external reviews come out very favorably, we know that both sides have invested well. I am so proud of all these new members of the permanent faculty at YU."

The decision to grant these professors tenure comes several years after the departure of several full-time, tenure-track, or tenured, professors from Yeshiva University. For example, during the 2015-2016 academic year, the Biology department lost three professors: Dr. Yakov Peter (tenure-track) left to teach at Landers College for Men, while Dr.’s Carl Feit and Barry Potvin (both tenured) retired.

Further, Dr. Gabriel Cwilich, professor of physics and former director of the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program in Yeshiva College, expressed concerns about the departure or retirement of several humanities professors in the future and claimed the university had not begun planning in anticipation of those probable changes, according to an article in The Commentator about adjunctification of professors by Tzvi Levitin published in February of 2017.

The following Yeshiva University professors have received tenure: Dr. David Lavinsky, associate professor of English (YC), Dr. Ran Shao, associate professor of economics (YC), Dr. Josefa Steinhauer, associate professor of biology (YC), Dr. Avraham Leff, professor of computer science (YC). Dr. Catherine Eubanks, associate professor of psychology (Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology), Dr. Shu Han, associate professor of information systems (Sy Syms School of Business), and Dr. Deborah Pearlstein, professor of law (Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law).

At the YU-affiliated Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the following professors were awarded tenure: Dr. Luciano D’Adamio, professor of microbiology and immunology, Dr. Yousin Suh, professor of genetics, Dr. Bin Zhou, professor of genetics, Dr. Jose Pena, professor of neuroscience, Dr. Ganjam Kalpana, professor of genetics, Dr. Antonio DiCristofano, professor of developmental and molecular biology, Dr. Hannes Buelow, professor of genetics, Dr. Ulrich Steidl, professor of cellular biology, Dr. Kartik Chandran, professor of microbiology and immunology, and Dr. Michael Ross, professor of medicine and chief of the renal division.

Additionally, two professors, Dr. Jeffrey Gonzalez, professor of psychology (Ferkauf), and Dr. Daniel Rynhold, professor of Jewish philosophy (Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies), received the rank of full professor.