IBC Loophole Abolished by YC Faculty

A ruling by the Academic Standards Committee that was approved by the Yeshiva College faculty at the end of the spring 2005 semester promises to have lasting ramifications for both morning and afternoon Jewish studies requirements at Yeshiva. The new policy states that all students must now graduate with twenty academic Jewish studies credits on their transcripts, as opposed to the previous de facto status which tolerated a course distribution requirement, rather than a credit one. The ruling comes at a time in which ASC would apparently like to rein in a rotating door culture that has damaged the academic integrity of the Isaac Breuer College. The policy will only go into effect for new students on campus.

Students in IBC study academic Jewish studies in the morning, thereby fulfilling both a morning Jewish studies requirement as well as an afternoon academic Jewish studies course requirement. Students in the Mazer Yeshiva Program and Stone Beit Midrash Program have no such option and must take these academic Jewish Studies courses (two semesters of Hebrew, two semesters of Jewish History, and four semesters of Bible, totaling twenty credits) in the afternoon.

In recent years, it has become common MYP or SBMP to take two semesters off from those morning programs to study in IBC, minimizing their Jewish studies course requirements or purging themselves of them completely. Such a move allows a student to take the maximum of 17.5 credits in a semester in his afternoon program without using up those credits on Jewish studies courses. At the same time, the rigor of IBC courses has suffered, providing further incentive for students to discharge their Jewish studies requirements there.

The new policy change will make the switch to IBC less worthwhile for an MYP or SBMP student, in that courses taken in IBC will only count toward course requirements, not credit requirements. In other words, if a student takes two Jewish History courses and two Bible courses in a semester in IBC (which would total ten credits in YC courses), he will receive only three credits for the semester and relieve himself of those course requirements but he will still have seventeen more Jewish studies requirements to fulfill. Additionally, this will make it more difficult for a MYP or SBMP student to graduate after six semesters, as he will have more courses to take in the afternoon.

Dr. Carl Feit, Chairman of the ASC, stresses that this seemingly new policy is not really new at all; rather it is "just a clarification of the existing structure of what it means to be a Yeshiva College graduate." According to Dr. Feit, every student that receives a degree from Yeshiva College should graduate with a major of his choosing and a minor in academic Jewish studies on his transcript, echoing the language of the ruling, which was implemented to "ensure that all YC/SSSB graduates show a concentration in Jewish Studies on their transcripts." "This is integral to what it means to be a YC graduate," he says.

Feit, also head of the Biology department, claims that the practice of program hopping emerged when the administration made the decision to start awarding 32 credits for a year's study in Israel. When Israel returnees came to YC credit in hand, they assumed that only three more years awaited them in YC. But the curriculum was never modified for a three-year stay, so what developed was what Feit called a "pressure cooker." When the pressure to finish in three years built up, students began to look for shortcuts and they discovered the IBC loophole. This allowed them to do in a year what was meant to be done over the course of four, which amounted to a "difference of quality in their Judaic studies education," according to Feit.

The ACS ruling also stipulates that a student who spends six semesters in IBC will be able to graduate after only six semesters even though he would only be graduating with eighteen Jewish studies credits.

The ASC is a body made up of professors, students, and administrators who deliberate on matters of academic concern and integrity at Yeshiva.

Another byproduct of the ruling is that by potentially eliminating students who just want to take the required basic Judaic studies courses from IBC, some IBC professors could now have the leeway to teach a larger variety of more advanced courses.

For his own department, Rabbi Dr. Jeremy Wieder, cluster head of Jewish Studies in YC, says that he will happily implement the ASC ruling. "(T)he culture of cutting corners and beating the system is endemic on the Wilf campus," says Wieder of the MYP students who alleviate Jewish Studies requirements in IBC, "and [i]s a major detriment to serious education and, even more importantly, it is detrimental to the character development of a serious ben-Torah."

Wieder does not view the IBC loophole as the main quandary of the Judaic studies department, however; rather he believes that there is a need for better, more serious courses within his department. "(This) is the main problem which must be addressed, and no bells, whistles or rules will solve the problem," says Wieder. "Nonetheless, commonly exploited loopholes only exacerbate the problem."