Message From Our President
Dear Students, Faculty, Staff and Friends,
I am pleased to present to you this Guide to our plans for the upcoming fall semester and reopening of our campuses. In form and in content, this coming semester will be like no other. We will live differently, work differently and learn differently. But in its very difference rests its enormous power.
The mission of Yeshiva University is to enrich the moral, intellectual and spiritual development of each of our students, empowering them with the knowledge and abilities to become people of impact and leaders of tomorrow. Next year’s studies will be especially instrumental in shaping the course of our students’ lives. Character is formed and developed in times of deep adversity. This is the kind of teachable moment that Yeshiva University was made for. As such, we have developed an educational plan for next year that features a high-quality student experience and prioritizes personal growth during this Coronavirus era. Our students will be able to work through the difficulties, issues and opportunities posed by our COVID-19 era with our stellar rabbis and faculty, as well as their close friends and peers at Yeshiva.
To develop our plans for the fall, we have convened a Scenario Planning Task Force made up of representatives across the major areas of our campus. Their planning has been guided by the latest medical information, government directives, direct input from our rabbis, faculty and students, and best practices from industry and university leaders across the country. I am deeply thankful to our task force members and all who supported them for their tireless work in addressing the myriad details involved in bringing students back to campus and restarting our educational enterprise.
In concert with the recommendations from our task force, I am announcing today that our fall semester will reflect a hybrid model. It will allow many students to return in a careful way by incorporating online and virtual learning with on-campus classroom instruction. It also enables students who prefer to not be on campus to have a rich student experience by continuing their studies online and benefitting from a full range of online student services and extracurricular programs.
In bringing our students back to campus, safety is our first priority. Many aspects of campus life will change for this coming semester. Gatherings will be limited, larger courses will move completely online. Throughout campus everyone will need to adhere to our medical guidelines, including social distancing, wearing facemasks, and our testing and contact tracing policies. Due to our focus on minimizing risk, our undergraduate students will begin the first few weeks of the fall semester online and move onto the campus after the Jewish holidays. This schedule will limit the amount of back and forth travel for our students by concentrating the on-campus component of the fall semester to one consecutive segment.
Throughout our planning, we have used the analogy of a dimmer switch. Reopening our campuses will not be a simple binary, like an on/off light switch, but more like a dimmer in which we have the flexibility to scale backwards and forwards to properly respond as the health situation evolves. It is very possible that some plans could change, depending upon the progression of the virus and/or applicable state and local government guidance.
Before our semester begins, we will provide more updates reflecting our most current guidance. Please check our website, yu.edu/fall2020 for regular updates. We understand that even after reading through this guide, you might have many additional questions, so we will be posting an extensive FAQ section online as well. Additionally, we will also be holding community calls for faculty, students, staff and parents over the next couple of months.
Planning for the future during this moment has certainly been humbling. This Coronavirus has reminded us time and time again of the lessons from our Jewish tradition that we are not in full control of our circumstances. But our tradition also teaches us that we are in control of our response to our circumstances. Next semester will present significant challenges and changes. There will be some compromises and minor inconveniences--not every issue has a perfect solution. But faith and fortitude, mutual cooperation and resilience are essential life lessons that are accentuated during this period. And if we all commit to respond with graciousness, kindness, and love, we can transform new campus realities into profound life lessons for our future.
Deeply rooted in our Jewish values and forward focused in preparing for the careers and competencies of the future, we journey together with you, our Yeshiva University community, through these uncharted waters. Next year will be a formative year in the lives of our students, and together we will rise to the moment so that our students will emerge stronger and better prepared to be leaders of the world of tomorrow.
Best Wishes,
Ari Berman
Dr. Fredy Zypman, professor of physics and co-chair of the Department of Physics, has received the Materials Today Embracing Challenge Award, sponsored by the journal Materials Today, published by Elsevier, an international multimedia publishing business serving the educational, professional science and healthcare communities worldwide.
The award honors “researchers in the field of materials science and engineering who have overcome difficult circumstances to pursue their research career, however early or advanced, and are contributing meaningful insights in their particular field of investigation.” Dr. Zypman was chosen to receive the award for the significant personal challenges he overcame in his early years growing up in Uruguay and still going on to make significant contributions across various fields of science.
The Award’s judging panel, chaired by the editors of the journal Materials Today, Dr. Jun Lou, Rice University, and Dr. Gleb Yushin, Georgia Institute of Technology, selected Dr. Zypman based on his achievements and the challenges he overcame to realize these achievements. The recipient receives a cash prize and all-expenses-paid attendance at the award reception, which will be held at Rice University on September 27-28, 2018.
“Fredy Zypman lived through state repressions and had to deal with the authoritarian military government while studying and doing research in Uruguay in the beginning of his research career to hereafter receive a PhD from Case Western Reserve University and become a remarkably inventive scientist and a beloved professor at the University of Puerto Rico and at Yeshiva University,” Yushin said. “Fredy’s major scientific contributions are absolutely remarkably broad: from medical instrumentation to construction materials to natural gas pipe protection to space lubrication to nano-friction to scanning probe microscopy to quantum field theory and colloidal science.”
“I want to thank Elsevier’s Materials Today and to the Materials Today Embracing Challenge Award judging panel for selecting me for this year’s award,” said Dr. Zypman. “It brings back good memories of youthful unbound sources of energy driven just by the love of learning. More importantly, my hope is that my little story may motivate young minds to a life of learning and to understand its huge potential for self-fulfillment and for serving society. I see the need to spread this message from interactions with my students, and the young football-soccer players that I support on weekends. I would like to dedicate this recognition to everyone that endures unjustified restrictions of liberties and opportunities in their everyday life.”
