Yeshiva U. Board Backs Richard Joel Despite Faculty No-Confidence Vote

Richard Joel
The Yeshiva University board of trustees issued a statement in support of President Richard Joel after the undergraduate faculty overwhelmingly passed a no-confidence resolution against him.
Board chairman Dr. Henry Kressel, in a letter accompanying the board’s message issued Friday, called the vote that day of the faculty of Yeshiva College at Yeshiva University “an unfortunate development,” adding that the administration has held several meetings with the faculty “to develop plans to enhance the quality of the educational experience at YU while saving costs.”
In a vote that is not binding on the board, 80 percent of the faculty voted no-confidence to 3 percent confidence, with 17 abstentions, amid frustration over deep cuts in the curriculum and the announcement that some contract faculty will be let go. Some two-thirds of the faculty voted.
“The Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible for ensuring the University is able to move forward with excellence,” the board said in its statement. “This responsibility includes implementing a financial plan to ensure the sustainability of the institution. Under our direction, President Richard Joel, his administration and the Board’s outside advisers, Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), have identified areas across the entire university to streamline and realign operations, while ensuring the student experience remains vibrant. They have performed admirably in a difficult environment.”
Professor Gillian Steinberg, a member of the Yeshiva College executive committee, told The New York Jewish Week that the vote was meant to “signal donors in a meaningful way” and “indicate that the board of trustees is moving in the wrong direction.”
He told The Jewish Week that the vote was held after the faculty realized it could not plan the fall 2015 academic schedule since it did not know what courses and lecturers were facing the chopping block.
Last month, Yeshiva University signed an agreement in principle to transfer the operations and finances of its Albert Einstein College of Medicine to the Montefiore Health System.
The university lost substantially from its heavy investments with Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Just 1 Jewish coach still in NCAA title contention as Todd Golden’s Florida faces Houston in men’s basketball final
-
Fast Forward Breakthrough Prize winner Dennis Gaitsgory is planning to attend a protest in Israel
-
Fast Forward Netanyahu in Washington again to meet with Trump to discuss tariffs, Gaza
-
Fast Forward He called a Nazi sympathizer ‘extraordinary.’ Now he’s a nominee for U.S. attorney.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.