Decision Time for Honors Program Administration

In the wake of Dr. Otteson's resignation as Director of the Honors Program, the administrators of the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program are seeking to recover lost ground over the coming academic year. In early August, Joanne Jacobson, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, was appointed Director of the Honors Program, and Dr. Gabriel Cwilich returned as Associate Director.

State of the Leadership

Dean Jacobson makes no secret of the fact that she was not appointed Director in the traditional manner. Dean Jacobson and Dr. Cwilich did not apply for these positions this year, nor were they selected based on any grand vision that they had for the Honors Program. Dr. Cwilich and Dean Jacobson were chosen because they each have a considerable amount of administrative experience, as well as longstanding involvement with the Honors Program.

Similarly, at a meeting held on September 4 for continuing honors students, Dean Jacobson admitted that there is still much work to be done. "We haven't yet been able to frame a fully developed mission statement," Dean Jacobson said. We haven't gotten that far." More recently, Dean Jacobson expressed her hope that fundamental issues such as the construction of a mission statement would be resolved in the coming weeks.

Having been finalized mere weeks before the fall semester began, the leadership of the Honors Program is still not fully developed. Dean David Srolovitz and Provost Morton Lowengrub have been heavily involved in the Honors Program since the summer, and were present at the aforementioned meeting. Dean Jacobson emphasized, though, that the Honors Program still has much freedom. "[Dean Srolovitz and Provost Lowengrub] want to be involved," Dean Jacobson said, but she also noted that they are not interested in providing oversight. At the same time, Provost Lowengrub has stated that his attendance of Honors Program events reflects his desire for involvement in the program.

In terms of the character of this year's Honors Program, Dean Jacobson emphasized that she is not an interim director, but rather a director. "This isn't just a year in which we're waiting for something to happen," Dean Jacobson said. "We want to make good on past promises."

Student and Faculty Trust, Confusion

One major issue which currently plagues the Honors Program is student sentiment towards the program. As can be seen in an unscientific poll taken by the Commentator (see page 3) of 153 students, 41% of Yeshiva students feel that Dr. Otteson's resignation has impacted their trust of Yeshiva's administration, while 24.5% of students feel relatively unaffected. More significantly, 75.3% of students believe that the administration did not communicate adequately with students, while only 5.3% felt that the administration handled the Otteson affair with appropriate levels of communication with students.

While some students lost faith, others are, quite simply, confused. Yonatan Cantor (YC '11) is in his first semester at Yeshiva. While studying in Israel this past year, Yonatan met with Dr. Otteson. When he received an email from Provost Lowengrub naming Dean Jacobson as Director, his reaction was, "Wait, wasn't that Dr. Otteson's job?"

Even though Yonatan was impressed with an Honors Program event for first-year students and enjoyed another honors event during orientation, his general feeling is that there is no sense of community within the Honors Program.

Therefore, one of Dean Jacobson's top priorities for the coming year is to regain some of the student trust which has been lost. The meeting held for continuing students seemed to move in this direction, as Dean Jacobson, Dean Srolovitz, Dr. Cwilich, and Provost Lowengrub all seemed willing to listen to students' complaints and ideas, as well as to speak fairly openly about their plans for the coming year. Dean Jacobson declared her intent of "adopting an open and transparent way" of leading the program, and acknowledged that the best way to win back student support and trust is "by acting in a way which deserves trust and support."

The other side of this problem, though, appears to be the faculty. Sources indicate that faculty members feel bothered by the lack of involvement they had with the program last year. "One lesson we learned last year is that the faculty is obviously very concerned with the Honors Program," said Dr. Cwilich. In the past, the faculty had played an important role in the hiring process. Last year though, some faculty felt that this power had been circumvented. "That was part of the problem last year," Dr. Cwilich said. In response to these concerns, Dean Jacobson admitted that there needs to be a closer relationship between the honors program and the general faculty of YC. "We want faculty to feel like they are part of and have a stake in the Honors Program."

Because of these joint concerns of student trust and faculty involvement, it seems that one of the focal points of the Honors Program this year will be to open up discussions and decisions to more faculty and more students, in order to keep people more informed and to allow them to play an active role in programming and policy.

For the faculty, this would mean more involvement with policy decisions and programming, and especially more oversight on the part of the Honors Committee, which had little practical input to the Honors Program last year. Dean Jacobson reaffirmed her commitment to the general faculty. "I will never be part of an honors Program that does its hiring separately," Dean Jacobson said.

For students, this will manifest in the addition of student seats on both the Honors Committee and the search committee for the next Director, and the creation of the Honors Program Student Board.

Another manifestation will be in the programming for this year. The Honors Program plans on running many different programs and initiatives for the students' benefit. Many of these programs will simply be building on or continuing programs and foundations put into place by Dr. Otteson, such as building a relationship with the local Alianza Dominicana (somewhat akin to a Jewish Community Center, but for Dominicans), continuing the hiking program from last year, funding a student-run Honors Conference which will take place in the spring, creating an Honors Lounge, and bringing in Dr. Peter Achinstein to teach in the philosophy department and head what will eventually be the Center for Philosophy and Science.

Roundtable discussions and open lunch meetings will serve both the faculty and students by creating an "open and transparent" atmosphere.

This message of openness has already gotten through to some students. "It seems that they sincerely want to hear what students have to say," Ben Greenfield (YC '10) said.

Honors Program, Honors College

Possibly the most significant problem which must be dealt with, or at least begin to be dealt with, this year is a question which has been asked since the Honors Program's inception: how separate should the Honors Program be from Yeshiva College?

With regard to this relationship, Dean Jacobson views the Honors Program in terms of two key concepts - collaboration, and garin (seed). There must be considerable collaboration between the Honors Program and Yeshiva College, but the Honors Program should also act as a seed, generating ideas and discussions which will flow from HP to YC.

At the meeting for continuing students, Dr. Cwilich noted that one important element of the Honors Program should be a palpable esprit de corps. At the same time, though, Dr. Cwilich noted that "we don't want to segregate completely."

Many students, however, feel that the Honors Program should be a truly separate entity from YC. "The debate over separation is the debate over whether the Honors Program should be good," said Ben Greenfield. According to Ben Greenfield, the Honors Program is currently in a state of limbo. "It's hard to care about something that's not real," he said. These feelings were echoed by Yonatan Cantor. "The general sentiment is that people don't think the Honors Program is worth more than the scholarship."

Whither the Honors Program under new management?

It appears that the Honors Program is facing challenges from without and from within. The Honors Program, still constructing its own foundations, must determine how best to relate the Honors Program to the students and faculty whom it comprises, as well as to the students and faculty who interact with it. In order to build on past accomplishments and achieve successes of its own, the program will have to earn the trust of students and faculty, and set a new course.