Saturday, April 18, 2009

campus closure

Nothing, of course, has been decided, and won't be until late June, but David Ellenson, the President of HUC, sent a letter to all students and staff last week saying that due to the dire financial crisis the college is in, the Board of Governors is going to take drastic restucturing steps, including consolidating of programs, staff reductions, tuition hikes, and/or closing of up to 2 (of 3) North American campuses.

This is huge news. Huge. Drastic. Horrid. Incomprehensible. Most likely, the one campus they'd retain would be New York - and close LA and Cincinnati. So I'd be moving to New York a year earlier. But the agony! The horror! It's got me - and many of my fellow classmates - with shudders. We're shuddering. and cowering.

Oh you silly Board of Governors and your rhetoric and your alarmism! Just don't make me relocate to New York a year ahead of schedule!

Here are some articles on the subject:



4 comments:

Sarah said...

JOEL! that's horrible news! i was just reading your last post, and looking at your pictures, and dreaming about june when you'd be back here in los angeles to go with me to new restaurants and museums.

and now i have to worry that you're not coming back at all?

that makes me very sad.

Unknown said...

These articles are alarmist...There is nothing to suggest that LA would close any more than the other two stateside campuses.

Y? said...

The fact is that both LA and Cincinnati are on the chopping block. In favor of keeping LA is the social work program, in favor of keeping Cincinnati is the low operating cost, the American Jewish Archives, and the Klau Library.

I really hope no hasty decisions are made.

Jeffrey said...

The problem was that UPI (one of the major wire services) published an article on the subject misquoting Ellenson as saying Cincinnati would definitely be closed. This article was then picked verbatim by newspapers on and off line, so the misinformation spread. I wrote a blog entry about my battle with UPI to correct the misinformation, which they sort of did. I wrote a blog entry on the subject.