Capping an exhaustive eighteen-month search, accounting professor and Yeshiva University alumnus Dr. Charles J. Snow was named Dean of the Sy Syms School of Business, replacing the retired Harold Nierenberg. Snow has been teaching at Yeshiva for eight years and has been voted "Teacher of the Year" five times. Commenting on Snow's appointment, Nierenberg enthusiastically remarked, "I'm elated, I think he's the right person. He has great ideas for bringing the school to great new heights."

The Goals of the New Dean

When asked what he would like to accomplish in his tenure as Dean, Snow replied that he has "three goals. [The first is to] increase the academic quality of what we offer. [The second is] to engage more alumni and get them involved in the school. [The third is] to get the school involved in other types of programs."

In order to improve the quality of the education at Sy Syms, Snow intends to review the content of all classes and eradicate overlapping courses. In addition, Snow aims to add new courses to the SSSB curriculum. The first of the new courses, "Historical development of Modern Finance," is set to debut in the spring of 2002 under the rubric of the newly created Business and Financial History department, which was endowed in January 2001 by renowned financial analyst Henry Kaufman.

Another new offering that is currently being planned is a Visiting Practitioner Program, which will be jointly taught by Syms faculty and businessmen from outside the University. "This benefits the students, faculty and university," explained Snow. There are also plans to expand the course offerings that deal with Israeli businesses because, as Dean Snow explains, "many of our students are interested in making aliyah, so its important to give them a better a understanding of how Israeli businesses work." Dr. Martin Leibowitz, an accounting professor at SSSB, trumpeted the virtues of this prospective program, "it's a dynamite idea, and it will appeal to many of our students." The increased involvement of alumni is one of Dr. Snow's goals, and he hopes to fulfill this by offering continuing education courses. Periodically, in the corporate world, executives need to participate in training seminars and the majority of these seminars are held on Shabbos. Because of this conflict, many Syms graduates are unable to participate in such courses, but the courses proposed by Snow would be held on Sunday and would therefore be ideal for shomer Shabbos businessmen.

While the post-graduate courses would target SSSB alumni and Orthodox community in general, Snow would also like to sponsor ethics seminars. The purpose of this would be to position Syms' as an authority in business ethics. When asked if there are plans to add an MBA program, Snow said, "we're not entering the graduate area, yet. Before we expand, we have a lot of work within the school and for our graduates."

While Snow hopes to increase alumni involvement with the University, he would also like to enhance the relationship between alumni and current students. Snow hopes to accomplish this by instituting an Alumni Mentoring Program, which would benefit both students and the University. The students will benefit from contact with business professionals, which will enable them to more easily enter the job market. At the same time, the University hopes that the increased involvement of alumni will encourage potential donors to become involved.

Immediate Plans

The underlying theme of Snow's initiatives is to improve the quality of the education that students receive at SSSB. This is the next step in the continuous process of molding SSSB into an elite business school, a process that began with the creation of SSSB under the guidance of Dean Herbert Schiff in 1987. After Schiff retired, the business school was guided by Harold Nierenberg and in his tenure, SSSB grew exponentially, from a school with approximately two hundred students to one that now caters to more than seven hundred students, on two campuses. "My primary goal was to build the school numerically and I accomplished that," recounted Nierenberg. "Now it is time to move onto the next phase."

With the current job market tightening, it is imperative that all Sy Syms' students present strong communication skills when they interview for jobs. In order to prepare for job interviews, many students go to OPCS for interview seminars; however, these students generally only attend seminars during their last year on campus. Snow concedes that attending an interview seminar when one is a senior is not enough, and he hopes to involve students with OPCS when they are juniors and maybe even sophomores. In order to accommodate such a large influx in the amount of students that utilize the OPCS office, Snow intends to increase the size of the OPCS office, but only after he improves the quality of the office.

In recent years OPCS has had difficulty placing all of Syms' students and Snow attributes this to the fact that "we generally look [to place our students] at top tier firms." The problem is that not all students are compatible with top tier companies and Snow realizes this; He plans to invite more second and third tier companies to campus so as to facilitate better placement for Syms' students. Also, "in anticipation of the downturn we are expanding the scope of the firms we go to." Snow adds, "[we will target] new firms, alumni and board members. Hopefully by taking these steps, we will overcome a bad scenario." Snow admitted that not all of the graduates of last year's senior class have gotten jobs, but he pointed out that the school remains in contact and is working with them.

In order to be able to pay for the increased OPCS office and for many of his other innovations, Dean Snow needs to be able to raise money. Much like his predecessor Dean Nierenberg, Snow will spend much of his time fundraising. "I'm heavily involved in fundraising with Dan Forman and Susan Meyer [of Development]," he said. I plan to visit people as part of a Dean's responsibility, whether for scholarships or [to fund] faculty research."

Snow also thinks it necessary that faculty to be engaged in research projects, and he would like to foster an environment in Syms' that will be conducive to research. While he admits that "the opportunity to engage in research does not present itself because of all the courses [that faculty teach]," Snow added, "We are exploring all the options." Snow has recently hired three professors; one already has earned a PhD and the other two will be finishing their doctorates in the coming year. According to Snow the benefits of research can be seen in the class because "beyond the basic text, a professor can bring practical scenarios and they can bring in studies of research."

While the heavy course load that teachers' carry limits their ability to do research, it also can cause burnout. As reported in the Commentator last spring, one of the reasons cited by Professor Aaron Brown for his resignation was overwork. Dean Snow hopes to alleviate this by reducing the number of courses that faculty teach.

Dean Nierenberg announced his retirement in November of 1999, and he was originally slated to retire in the spring of 2000, but because the executive search committee was not able to find a suitable replacement, Nierenberg stayed on as Syms' dean for an additional year.

At the time that Nierenberg announced his retirement, he asked Snow if he would consider applying for the soon-to-be vacant post. Snow declined to apply for the job, arguing that the University should perform "due diligence" and look outside the faculty for a new dean. After a year and a half of looking for a successor, without success, in April 2001, Snow was finally persuaded to apply for the job.

However, the circumstances surrounding Snow's eventual application are somewhat bizarre; In March of 2001, the Executive Search committee - which was composed of the YC Dean Norman Adler, SCW Dean Karen Bacon, three of the SSSB faculty, two students, and the University's Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Morton Lowengrub, who chaired the committee - presented three finalists to the SSSB faculty. A source close to The Commentator explains that while the students on the search committee advocated the hiring of one candidate, the faculty vetoed that candidate. In fact, the faculty considered this candidate to be a "phony."

After the faculty was presented with the three finalists, the faculty wrote a letter to Dr. Lowengrub, petitioning the executive search committee to re-open the application process in order to enable Snow to apply. "The faculty met with all three candidates and we felt that Dr. Snow was head and shoulders above the candidates presented in nearly all areas," explained Dr. Leibowitz. "His strengths are familiarity with the institution and he can relate with the yeshivot in Israel. He knows the alumni and administrators - [basically we felt that] he could step right in and represent Sy Syms. He has so many things going for him - he's a mensch."

Michael Davis, the newly elected president of the Sy Syms School of Business Student Association, agreed with the sentiments expressed by Leibowitz, "In my interactions with Dean Snow, he has impressed upon me his dedication towards the students and I feel that from all the candidates with whom we met, he was far and away the best candidate."

After the executive search committee fulfilled the teachers' request, Snow needed to go through the entire application process. This entailed interviewing with an executive search firm from Boston, which also performed the obligatory reference checks. The next step was meeting with the executive search committee, and after they endorsed him, Snow met with Board members and the deans of the University's schools and earned their approval. These meeting occurred during the early part of May and by the end of May, Snow agreed to assume the position of Dean of the Sy Syms School of Business.

Asked about whether Snow's status as an Orthodox Jew in any way influenced his eventual hiring, Nierenberg replied, "I thought that it was terribly important [that the new dean be religious]. I am observant and I know what the students and parents of [SSSB] want and feel. Young people that come to Yeshiva are different from those that go to other schools," explained Nierenberg. "Therefore it is necessary for the new dean to be able to understand them."

Snow, himself, was more reserved about questions of religion. But, he allowed, "As an alumnus of Yeshiva University ('73), I understand the rigors of the duel program and I know what it takes."

Dean Snow intends to have an open door policy regarding meeting with students. He considers students to be his clientele and, as he puts it, "It is my job to keep them happy." Snow would like to meet as many students as possible and in order to facilitate this, he is planning a "town hall" meeting for all Sy Syms students to be held in early September. Students will be able to ask Snow questions and he in turn will be able to get a sense of what the concerns of SSSB students are.

Snow also intends to spend at least two afternoons a week at the Midtown campus as well as teach a finance class. The purpose of this is to establish "more of a presence at midtown," Snow explained. "We want to show the students that we will be accountable. Right now I am planning on being there twice a week and [Associate Dean] Ira Jaskoll will be there once a week. If I need to be there more, I'll be there more." For Syms students, in midtown and Washington Heights, Snow's apparent receptivity to innovative ideas and exciting new programming and his stated commitment to accommodate the needs of the students come as a most welcome development.< p>