2008 Woodie Awards
How Good Can a Yeshiva College Education Be?
Joanne Jacobson
Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 2 next >
I invite all Yeshiva College students to join me at 8:00 PM on Tuesday, October 16 for an open meeting on the Yeshiva College curriculum review.
At every college, "curriculum review" is, at its best, an occasion when an entire institution pauses- often for several years - and looks at itself in the mirror. Ideally, "curriculum review" should be a much more difficult-and much more hopeful-matter than reshuffling requirements; or moving required courses from Column A to Column B. Our curriculum review should be a time of asking ourselves what matters most to us and what we can be; a time of dreaming.
Throughout the past year, Yeshiva College faculty members and members of a student advisory board have been probing these questions together. After an opening visit to the beit midrash, a steering committee of senior faculty met weekly throughout the Fall of 2006 and into the Spring of 2007, consulting with Yeshiva University leadership (including President Joel and several representatives of our yeshiva); organizing faculty focus groups and written surveys; meeting with Admissions staff; working with an outside consultant. A special task force of faculty and students on the First-Year Experience began to meet. And six faculty members attended a five-day General Education Institute run by the American Association of Colleges and Universities in Newport, Rhode Island in May.
In the course of these discussions I have frequently found myself in the midst of student conversations about curriculum that seem rooted in anxiety rather than hope. How many new requirements will we have to fulfill? Will we have to write senior theses? Will we have to stay on campus for classes Monday to Friday? And, of course, the elephant in the room: Will we have to stay on campus for four years after we return from Israel?
To me, these are the wrong questions with which to begin discussion. We should be starting with questions rooted in hope. Our students are our strongest asset at Yeshiva College, our raison d'être. We insist that we owe it to our students to press each other to ask-"How good should a Yeshiva College education be?"
At every college, "curriculum review" is, at its best, an occasion when an entire institution pauses- often for several years - and looks at itself in the mirror. Ideally, "curriculum review" should be a much more difficult-and much more hopeful-matter than reshuffling requirements; or moving required courses from Column A to Column B. Our curriculum review should be a time of asking ourselves what matters most to us and what we can be; a time of dreaming.
Throughout the past year, Yeshiva College faculty members and members of a student advisory board have been probing these questions together. After an opening visit to the beit midrash, a steering committee of senior faculty met weekly throughout the Fall of 2006 and into the Spring of 2007, consulting with Yeshiva University leadership (including President Joel and several representatives of our yeshiva); organizing faculty focus groups and written surveys; meeting with Admissions staff; working with an outside consultant. A special task force of faculty and students on the First-Year Experience began to meet. And six faculty members attended a five-day General Education Institute run by the American Association of Colleges and Universities in Newport, Rhode Island in May.
In the course of these discussions I have frequently found myself in the midst of student conversations about curriculum that seem rooted in anxiety rather than hope. How many new requirements will we have to fulfill? Will we have to write senior theses? Will we have to stay on campus for classes Monday to Friday? And, of course, the elephant in the room: Will we have to stay on campus for four years after we return from Israel?
To me, these are the wrong questions with which to begin discussion. We should be starting with questions rooted in hope. Our students are our strongest asset at Yeshiva College, our raison d'être. We insist that we owe it to our students to press each other to ask-"How good should a Yeshiva College education be?"
Be the first to comment on this story