Volume 67, Issue 8

At the Helm of Yeshiva College: Dean Norman Adler

by Zev Nagel

“It’s not easy being green,” says Yeshiva College Dean Dr. Norman Adler, quoting the legendary Muppet Kermit the Frog to describe the challenge of being Dean of Yeshiva College.  Over the past eight years, Adler has taken the reins of arguably America’s most distinctive college, guiding it vigorously on the path to greatness and recognition in the academic community.  Nevertheless, the challenge to maintain an image befitting of Yeshiva continues, and Adler is the one who bears the responsibility for the outcome.

Adler came to Yeshiva in 1995 after completing a five year stint as the Associate Dean for the College, School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and two years as Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University.  His academic appointments are numerous, including Research Professor and Associate Professor at Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania.

Since Adler assumed the position of dean, Yeshiva has climbed the ranks in the academic community with its rise – last year to number 40 – on U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of American universities.  Although Yeshiva’s large endowment fund played a critical role in securing the position, Adler points to the increase in faculty research grants and to individual student achievements, such as the Rhodes Scholarship won by Chaim Strauchler, YC ‘99, as the college’s own contribution to the new ranking.

Adler’s activism in the Jewish community stems back to his undergraduate days at Harvard where he served as Hillel president and was thoroughly involved in Jewish campus life.  During the ideological revolutions on college campuses in the 1960s, Adler served as the Director of the Jewish Free University, reaching countless numbers of Jewish students who were lost without identities.

In addition to his previous involvement in Jewish community affairs, Adler has also built award-winning academic programs.  The University of Pennsylvania’s increasing popular science major known as the Biological Basis of Behavior was Adler’s brainchild during his involvement there in the early 1990s.  His academic contributions to the University of Pennsylvania landed him the Dana Foundation Prize which is roughly the equivalent to the Oscars for education.

His rich academic accomplishments notwithstanding, Adler considers working with students as his most rewarding endeavor.  “Working with college students,” Adler expressed, “is what really motivates me.  I just love being with the guys.”

As a sign of his dedication to the students, Adler is the first dean to consistently stay for Shabbos on campus.  He typically spends Orientation Shabbos in Yeshiva as well as one other during the year.  Likewise, Adler has created once a week open office hours where students who cannot make appointments can enter casually to discuss their issues.  Similarly, Adler eats a few meals a week in the cafeteria to further his availability to students.

Part of his responsibilities as a dean at Yeshiva is to continue developing the University’s ideology and its application to student learning.  “Every student constructs his version of Torah U’Maddah,” said Adler.  “The goal here is to create Torah observant individuals infused with secular knowledge,” he elaborated.

Armed with Torah U’Maddah as his intellectual raison d'être, Adler has instituted a countless number of initiatives that affect the students, faculty, curriculum, and co-curriculum, “the four most integral aspects of any university.”

Adler is responsible for the creation of the advisement system, which currently assists myriads of students with academic decisions.  This strengthens the student-faculty relationship and also diminishes the number of students trying to use shortcuts.  “Shtick is bad for reality.  A few years ago all but 15 percent of a graduating class graduated with some shtick on their transcript.  This is counterproductive to our message,” asserts Adler.

The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, an initiative Adler helped develop, has also strengthened Yeshiva’s academic prestige as a first-rate university.  “The Honors Program is modeled on the Oxford-Cambridge system,” explained Adler, “with the goal to form intellectual leaders in both the Jewish community and the secular world.”  The program especially encourages growth within the Torah U’Maddah framework; in fact Adler feels that some of the best Senior Honors Theses are in subject matters relating to Torah U’Maddah.  “The purpose of the Honors Program, among many things, is to compete against the other elite liberal arts colleges,” he added.

The Honors Program, however, has recently come under fire from disgruntled students who see the program as “elitist,” allowing only Honors students to take Honors courses which often utilize the college’s best professors.  Adler debunks these accusations and instead describes the Honors Program as “semi-permeable, with often times over 50 percent of an Honors course being filled with non-honors students.”

Despite the broad spectrum of students at Yeshiva, Adler does not see the diversity as divisive.  “On the contrary,” boasted Adler, “the variety of students I see in the cafeteria make up the heart of this school.”  Reinforcing his confidence, Adler added comically, “I would offer scholarships to the Satmar Rebbe’s top two Chassidim, if they would come.”

Adler aims to build a faculty of unsurpassed intellectuals who combine fine teaching skills and scholarship.  But these teachers need to display their concern for students and learning.  “At most Ivy League schools,” charged Adler, “only 20 percent of the faculty is concerned with the students.  They usually focus their attention to research and graduate teaching.”

Looking towards the future, Adler anticipates things only getting better.  He seeks to elevate Yeshiva academically to earn admission to Phi Beta Kappa, a symbol of academic achievement which in his eyes “is certainly attainable.”  Reducing adjunct professors and hiring a full time teaching staff are other ways Adler intends to improve the education at Yeshiva.  He hopes for more future recipients of national scholarships which would bolster Yeshiva’s recognition.

However, the road to success has not yet been completely paved.  The cheating scandals of the past year illustrate some of the internal problems that Yeshiva and Adler have yet to resolve.  “An institution that represents the centrist Orthodox viewpoint such as Yeshiva needs to reach out to the world.  The values that we once took for granted are sinking, and the failure has placed us in danger.”  He currently is fighting vociferously to eradicate cheating on the Yeshiva campus which contradicts his fundamental goals as an educator.

Among the attempts to deal with cheating, Adler emphasizes an idealistic push to combat the cheating which will ultimately grant students access to high intellectual positions.  “If students would spend more time on campus and worry less about rushing through college and the learning process, the problems would be less acute,” advised Adler.  Along with this is the need to develop “a close intellectual integration between the Yeshiva and the college,” Adler added emphatically.  This has most recently been accomplished with Adler’s own involvement in Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Jeremy Wieder’s committee of rabbinic faculty members that discussed and ruled on relevant cheating issues.

However, the drive for precision in both Jewish and secular learning is not met without opposition, even from within the Yeshiva community.  “The same professor once accused me of ‘de-Judaizing’ the college and then only a few days later, of being a chenyoke [buffoon] tool of the Rabbis.”  Adler dismissed both accusations as incorrect assessments of his intentions and rather chooses Torah U’Maddah unconditionally – emphasizing both the Torah traditions and the intellectual pursuit of Maddah – as his absolute objective for students.

As an aside, Adler warned of the perpetual dangers of Yeshiva becoming a vocational school and not an institution educating its students for leadership in Jewish and American society.  The Honors Program he calls a direct response, offering a stimulating and innovative intellectual academic network; however, Adler wants to develop techniques to keep all students in college longer to better their education.  The recently added residency requirement of 84 credits is a way of countering the danger.  Additionally, the implementation of a strong communications program, combining basic social science training with vocational and professional education, Adler believes would diminish the danger and attract many students.

Adler admits that it is not easy to balance the students’ dual-curriculum.  He has no ambition of “merging the two [curriculums].”  “The Yeshiva system is axiomatic.  There is no other option than following the Torah,” he explained.  “On the other hand,” added Adler, “the University is supposed to be a ballagan [free for all], inviting free inquiry.”  The synergy of the two creates the ultimate intellectual experience.

All his effort and toil has not gone unnoticed.  “Although not [a graduate] of Yeshiva, Dean Adler has the ability to reflect the values of Yeshiva while simultaneously running the college,” said Mashgiach Ruchani Rabbi Yosef Blau.

Even from within the college faculty, Adler’s ability to combat the pressures and politics that confront him, continue to be recognized.  Sociology professor Dr. James Vrettos complemented Adler for doing the “difficult job of trying to unify very diverse factions and forces,” which he does, Vrettos added, “in a scholarly and professional manner.”

However, the most important ratings of approval, especially for Adler, come from Yeshiva students.  “As a teacher, [Adler] brings to the classroom an unparalleled breadth of knowledge along with a unique concern for student growth in both Torah and Maddah.  He sees in each of us the potential to become top-rate intellectuals, and the leaders of the next generation.” said YC junior Ariel Bayewitz.

“Although he is always busy, Dean Adler somehow makes time to see students and listen to their needs,” commented one YC senior.  “We are very lucky to have him,” he adds with admiration.

Perhaps the most impressive sign of Adler’s popularity at Yeshiva is indicated by the end of the year Commencement Excersises, where on multiple occasions Adler has received a standing ovation from the graduating class.

Despite the adversaries that confront Adler daily, he willingly takes on the challenges of being the dean of Yeshiva College, having chosen a path for Yeshiva that allows for a triumphant and prosperous future.♦

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