Administrator Threatens Yeshiva with Legal Action

Last Friday, Diane Persky, Assistant to the Dean of the Sy Syms School of Business, accepted a contract offer making her a full time professor for the next three semesters. In response to prior personnel movements, Persky, the business school’s midtown liaison, initiated legal action against the dean’s office.

Three weeks ago, Professor Persky was allegedly informed by Director of Enrollment Management John B. Fisher that she would no longer be allowed to accompany the Yeshiva contingent on recruitment and registration trips to Israel. "Recruitment and registration in Israel are both major components to that job. By taking that away, they essentially took away her activity," explained one administrator.

According to sources close with the situation, the decision to exclude Persky from participation in the trips to Israel did not come from Yeshiva’s Dean of Admissions Moshe Kranzler, rather it came from Fisher himself. While Fisher would not comment on the situation, citing its status as a personnel matter, a number of university employees claim that the reason Fisher decided to limit Persky’s role was that she is "not the proper role model for our girls," referring to both current and prospective Stern College for Women students.

Shortly after Persky received the news from Fisher, she was offered the opportunity to become a full time professor in the business school. The proposition gave Persky the chance to sign a contract that would secure for her a faculty position for the remainder of this academic year and all of the next.

On December 13, 1999, just days after extending Persky the contract for a full-time professorship, Sy Syms Dean Harold Nierenberg received a hand delivered letter from the law offices of Beranbaum Menken Ben-Asher & Fishel LLP, informing the dean that "this law firm has been retained by...Diane Persky, to assist her in negotiating specific terms and conditions of her employment."

Sources have revealed that Persky hoped that her next move within the Yeshiva community would be to become the first ever assistant dean in the business school. Persky is currently working on her Ph.D. and has extensive administrative and classroom experience.

Bruce Menken Esq., the author of the letter, further stated that he "would welcome the opportunity to meet the University’s legal counsel before the end of the year." According to administrators, official University policy when dealing with legal matters is for all correspondence to be conducted through the university’s legal office. The law office of University General Counsel Martin H. Bockstein Esq. declined to comment on this matter.

According to administrators who could not officially discuss the pending legal and personnel issues, Persky had until last Friday to sign her three semester faculty contract before it was removed from the table. Persky has accepted the faculty job and will be vacating her position as assitant to the dean and the end of this semester. As of press time no replacement has been found, however sources informed The Commentator that the office is close securing a professional for the beginning of the spring semester.