Yeshiva University will temporarily freeze all undergraduate club activities until it finalizes its legal strategy after its request for a stay on an order to recognize a campus LGBTQ+ club was denied by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, YU Commentator reports.
Sources told The Commentator that university officials are considering dissolving all clubs and student organizations to avoid recognizing the YU Pride Alliance as an official campus club. The future of student-run activities and student councils is unknown.
“Considering the upcoming Chagim,” a university email said, “the university will hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court to protect YU’s religious freedom.”
The university’s statement, sent by an unattributed student activities university email account, did not specify who was involved in this decision, what will be affected and how long the decision will be in effect.
Condemnation from student leaders was immediate.
“Clubs are an essential aspect of the YU experience and putting them on hold interferes with all of the positive opportunities and experiences that students gain from clubs,” said Stern College for Women Student Council (SCWSC) President Meital Lindenberg (SCW ‘23). “They serve to provide professional development, facilitate chesed opportunities, and create a sense of community on campus for students.”
“Student life is highly valued at this institution and clubs are essential to building positive student life on campus,” Lindenberg added.
Other student leaders told The Commentator that the university had not informed them of the measure or how to proceed.
“We were not expecting the university to take this drastic measure, and have not received any guidance about how we are to proceed with approving clubs, or having student council events,” Yeshiva Student Union (YSU) President Baruch Lerman (YC ‘23) told The Commentator.
Students, as part of their tuition, pay an activity fee of $200 as part of tuition earmarked for club activities. Lerman hopes to fight to get money refunded in the event club funds are withheld and the university follows through on its policy.
“If the university follows through with this new policy relating to student activities,” Lerman told The Commentator, “I will be insisting that the student activities fees that are charged on every student’s tuition bill be prorated for the extent of the time that student activities are suspended.”
The Commentator is independently run from Yeshiva University and is self-funded. However, The Commentator’s funds are stored in an account held by the Office of Student Life (OSL). It is unclear how The Commentator’s operations will be affected.
In a 5-4 decision Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue YU a stay, mostly on procedural grounds. The decision vacated a temporary stay Justice Sonia Sotomayer granted YU on Sept. 9. YU has been seeking a stay since a June court decision ordered it to recognize the YU Pride Alliance.
YU has one week of in-person classes and five days of virtual classes through the Yomim Tovim. Students will return to campus on Oct. 19.
{Matzav.com}
i understand that the students feel their fees should be refunded but i am disappointed that no one seems perturbed about the reason the clubs are suspended.
They are so messed up
The kids making this rukus are do demented why don’t they just go to a secular college?
I believe they should not have allowed any clubs in the first place. Now it can be argued that the move is aimed to that specific club (which, in fact, it is).
Also they are getting a lot of publicity, which is the troublemakers’ aim….. real people like that, if at all they enroll in YU, would meet in a club elsewhere.
Bad news.
To be fair, YU was at the forefront of pride activism for decades, I am surprised both that this did not happen sooner and that YU actually took a stand on this issue.
While the chickens have come home to roost perhaps, this is affecting the orthodox institutions of the university. Give some credit where credit is due.
Huh? What on earth are you talking about? The administration of YU was never at the forefront of pride activism
I never noticed “pride activism”. They are required not to discriminate.
Kol HaKavod to YU!
It’s saddening that other clubs feel that it may be justified to allow a ‘toeiva’ club for the sake of allowing all other clubs.
Agree totally!