In the students’ never-ending quest to tear down the patriarchal hegemony and sup-plant men as the rulers of society, attention has been drawn to a fact that has been the proverbial elephant in YU’s room for decades. The men’s campus is centered at West 185th Street in Manhattan, clearly a superior location to the women’s campus at West 34th. The numbers speak for themselves.
A recently uncovered series of correspondences between Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin and Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, dated to the early 1950’s, reveals the hidden agenda of these administrators in choosing a location for the then soon-to-be women’s campus over 150 streets lower than the men’s campus. The implicit message was that women ought never to expect to be on a level anywhere near that achievable by a man. While not explicitly mentioned, it is believed that the alphabetical precedence of Amsterdam Avenue over Lexington Avenue was also a consideration in this plot.
In today’s sensitive and gender-conscious atmosphere, we, as thinking individuals, can no longer stand for such blatant misogynistic attitudes. Students on the men’s campus have had varied reactions to these findings. Dovid Beyonce (‘16), an outspoken advocate for gender equality at YU, when asked about how the situation can be rectified, responded that “the campuses must be made equal in quality before they can be made equal numerically and alphabetically. Once STEM courses are made more serious at Stern and the arts experience a renaissance at YC, then we can discuss further plans for the campus position overhaul.”
When presented with this opinion, Beyonce’s peer Reuven Limbaughstein (‘17) com-mented as follows: “It’s all a matter of catering to the prevalent interests on each campus. Men aren’t as attentive to the arts, so it makes sense that they’d have an aesthetically dissatisfying avenue name like Amsterdam. Women, on the other hand, tend to gravitate away from the sciences and aren’t as mathematically oriented; therefore, their inclination toward lower numbers is a given.”
On the women’s campus, however, tensions understandably run deeper. Stern College undergrads have observed that some men’s attitudes toward their plight are indifferent at best, and downright chauvinistic at worst. They have started a petition to the City of New York to change the name of Lexington Avenue in order to place it prior to Amsterdam in alphabetical order. Options for this name change include Alexington Avenue, Amisandry Ave, and Aaaaaaaaavenue (pronounced Ahhh-venue).
In President Joel’s comments on the matter, he observed that regardless of the original intentions of the predecessors who placed the campuses in their original locations, Yeshiva University will continue to maintain its commitment to women’s rights and sensitivity to any perceived injustices against them.
According to the President, this may include the opening of the first floor of the Glueck Beis Medrash to women, although this initiative is suspect of intentionally placing men on the higher-numbered second floor.
When all is said and done, we call upon the administration to take steps to secure the future of gender equality at YU through any and all means possible.