Volume 67, Issue 4  

YUStudents.org Up and Running

by Alexander Chester and Moshe Greenbaum

Although Yeshiva has boasted a University website for over seven years now, students have never had anything of the sort.  Until now, that is.  Through the hard work of Yeshiva College juniors Chanoch Goldfeder and Ezra Butler, www.yustudents.org, a comprehensive internet site devoted exclusively to students, is now up and running. 

Although the site was originally conceived of as a convenient way to register for the Guide to the Perplexed Part II, Goldfeder soon saw this trifling convenience grow into a full-scale operation: a hodgepodge of regularly updated, student-centered information on just about everything students ever asked about and usually received blank-faced responses in return.  Phase one of Goldfeder’s expansion introduced contact info and event coverage for the many strata of student government and the myriad clubs as well as an array of pertinent academic info with a much-needed user-friendly touch.  But Goldfeder didn’t stop there.

Links to the The Commentator, The Observer, and midtown clubs followed precipitously.  One by one, links to other sites deemed opportune for the student body – including GetGrades.com,  ymail accounts, OU.org, OnlySimchas.com, and JPost.com among others – were added in to the site.  Minyan times, café menus, and shuttle schedules also appear there, and the list goes on and on. 

“The YSU website has done something for the students that the university was incapable of doing for far too long,” said Sy Syms junior Richard Silverman.  “If they advertise the site well and continue to update it regularly, I have no doubt that it will be a valuable resource for all students.”   

Although the Yeshiva University Computer Society (YUCS), of which Goldfeder was a part, had previously managed YUCS.org, a website allowing Guide registering only, when webmaster Shmuel Popper (YC ’01) graduated, the site was left to wither. 

This summer, however, YSU President Shai Barnea began talking to YUCS President David Rabin about creating some kind of site. Rabin then passed on the idea to Goldfeder, who had already been flirting with the idea.

Soon thereafter, Goldfeder hit a funding brick wall head on.  “The larger the website becomes, the more it costs to keep it online,” explained Goldfeder. “We expect it to grow in the coming weeks, including a major SSSBSC website and many smaller club websites. Because of the increasing costs, we decided to include as many people as possible on the committee so that we could get as much funding as possible from all the different organizations.” 

Goldfeder’s inclusion, while ostensibly a good idea, did not yield the desired result.   Because the undertaking grew out of a related Guide project, Goldfeder decided to approach the Guides’ subsidizers: YSU.  But, when Goldfeder mapped out his vision for expansion, YSU was not happy about financing a site that would not guarantee them more say and space than other organizations.

YSU’s reservations notwithstanding, many other student organizations offered to fund the project, which was said to cost $250.  Goldfeder, however, was reluctant to accept funding before deciding who had proper jurisdiction over his brainchild.  But, he decided that whoever sponsored the site would control it.

After a month of deliberation, a decision was reached: YSU and Stern College for Woman Student Council would split the cost monthly.  Other organizations were invited to utilize the site but would only be allocated a maximum of 250 megabytes of space; clubs exceeding that mark would be forced to pay supplemental fees.

The site is in no way associated with the University website, www.yu.edu, or the Office of Student Services, obviating issues of censorship.  Goldfeder also mentioned that leaving MIS out of the picture would prompt more student involvement in the site’s architecture.  “It is a good resume-builder, to be a web-master of a site like this,” says Goldfeder. “I told this to Dean Adler, and he agreed with me.”

The University administration has been supportive of the site, and according to Goldfeder, they have e-mailed him on occasion, objecting to a particular link. “I tried to be accommodating to them, removing an objectionable link.”

The site’s success depends heavily on its popularity. It has only been operational for a month, and most hits thus far have come from Guide registering.  Moreover, Goldfeder is still waiting for a number of clubs to submit the pertinent information.  When that happens, he plans on orchestrating a large-scale campaign aimed at imbedding YUStudents.org into students’ consciousness.

Goldfeder is optimistic for the future. “YUStudents.org is the only place you can find information about every kind of event: athletic, student-organized, guest speakers, etc.” The hit frequency is rising weekly, with more students discovering the site and staging visiting recurrently. The site eventually aspires to provide all the necessary day-to-day features of the University’s website.  Goldfeder hopes that students will rally around the work, making the site a success.

Meanwhile, grass-roots support is rising. SSSB sophomore Jonathan Richton finds the site to be very helpful “when you want to know what’s going on around campus.” “Finally, something is being done that has the primary focus of helping students,” says SSSB sophomore Av Sinensky, echoing Richton’s sentiment.

As word spreads about the site, it is speculated that its success will grow in turn.

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