Rosen Resigns

Man Behind The Message Succeeded by Living Legend

David Rosen, Director of the Yeshiva University Department of Public Relations and the “Man behind the Message” of the University for the last four years, has announced his resignation. His departure for one of the preeminent public relations firms in New York, Howard Rubenstein and Associates, promises to leave a sizable void at the helm of YUPR.

YUPR was founded by a man Rosen calls “a living legend,” Sam Hartstein. Created by Hartstein in 1943 and headed by him for more than fifty years, YUPR grew from a single desk in 1947 to the series of offices and studios staffed by nearly 30 people on the fourth floor of Furst Hall. After Hartstein served YU for five decades, he retired to the position of Senior Advisor and passed the publicity torch to Rosen, calling him “the ultimate professional.”

Rosen arrived at YU with an impressive public relations resume and extensive contacts in the media world. He spent ten years as a journalist in New England, during which he was a two-term president of the Massachusetts State House Press Association while working for publications such as the Boston Herald and Newsweek. Moving to the public relations field, Rosen worked as the Director of Public Information for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and then as the Chief of Staff of former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Murphy.

His true calling, however, Rosen found in the field of university public relations. He was an Associate Vice-President for News and Public Relations at Harvard University, an Associate Vice-President for Public Affairs at the University of Chicago, and the Vice-President for Public Affairs at Brandeis University. From Brandeis he was recruited by YU to head the department left leaderless by Hartstein's retirement.

“One of my major concerns coming here,” said Rosen, “was succeeding Sam Hartstein. He was a living legend with 50 years of service and a genuine pioneer in university public relations. He was one of those who created the field.” And successfully succeed him, Rosen did.

He revamped and computerized the entire YUPR office, and redesigned the alumni magazine, updating its features and improving its graphics to reflect the more modern standard for such publications. He also inaugurated a new university newspaper, the YU Today. “I created it as a house organ for people to rely on, and to be lively, informative, accurate, positive and truthful, which differentiates it from the Commentator,” said Rosen. He enhanced the PR department at the Cardozo School of Law, and oversaw improvements in all of YUPR's five departments; graphics, media, photography, development, and Midtown.

Rosen presided over PR stories such as the Anne Scheiber inheritance, which he considers his largest coup in office. He convinced the University administration to hold off announcing the news of Scheiber's gift until the annual Hannukah dinner, magnifying the impact of the news and allowing YUPR to prep the media. The results were impressive, with widespread national media exposure, and international coverage reaching as far as China, which ran a segment about the gift on Chinese national television.

During the term of his tenancy of the corner office on the fourth floor of Furst Hall, YU was transformed from a school perennially delegated to the bottom tier of academic rankings to a first tier school. This put YU in the distinguished company of some of the finest institutions of higher learning in America. Rosen orchestrated the University’s media blitz about its ascendancy to the upper level of educational heights. “During my stay here in YU we have gone from a third tier school, to a second tier school, to a first tier school two years running,” said Rosen. Many attributed this to the higher media profile of YU, and by proxy, to the work done by YUPR.

He also directed damage control for PR disasters, such as the controversy over organizations for gay and lesbian students at YU's graduate schools, which Rosen termed “a couple of students cranking this thing up and the religious right outside of YU seeing some advantage in being critical.” Assisting him in his spin control efforts was Bruce Bobbins, who was the Assistant Director of YUPR and extremely instrumental in portraying the University in the best light for much of Rosen's tenure.

Bobbins departed last year to Howard Rubenstein and Associates, the same firm Rosen is now headed for. The firms disparate client list includes other universities as well as a large group of celebrities. They specialize in what is euphemistically termed ”damage control,” and recently represented the disgraced sportscaster Marv Albert in his bitingly personal public relations disaster.

“I will still work with Yeshiva, but now they will be one of the clients in my portfolio,” says Rosen. Some of YU's PR business will be handled by Howard Rubenstein, but for now the leadership of YUPR is right back where it started, in the hands of Sam Hartstein. The Senior Advisor is currently running the office while a search committee is formed under the auspices of Jefferey Rosengarten, Head of Personnel. During the transition period Rosen has “an understanding” with Howard Rubenstein and Associates that he will continue to assist YUPR until a fitting successor is chosen.