Prior to the fall holiday break, Yeshiva University undergraduate student leaders met to plan an event educating their peers on the Iran deal. Yet due to a number of conflicts, both scheduling and otherwise, the event was unable to take place.
When the presidents of YSU, YCSA, SCWSC and those of YUPAC and the Israel Club sat down to plan the event, some unforeseen discussions took place about what a YU student leader’s responsibility is at a politically charged time such as this. With the Iran deal in constant flux and the American-Israeli relationship on thin ice, student council members debated their obligations to represent both anti-deal and pro-deal positions at a potential event.
Perhaps surprisingly, members didn’t easily agree on an approach.
Even before the academic year officially started, YUPAC and the Israel Club have been actively mobilizing YU undergraduates via email and social media. Their rhetoric is decidedly anti-deal, and their voice has thus far been the dominant one on campus.
Sensitive to the “one-sided” nature of this language on campus, YCSA president Josh Nagel entered the discussion with his fellow student leaders wanting to create a “balanced program.” He was concerned that the popular opinions on the deal circulating the campuses were marginalizing and excluding those students who may support the deal.
“The Iran deal is on the mind of many students, since many had already approached us about creating programming to oppose the deal,” he wrote in an email interview. “But we know there are students who legitimately believe the Iran deal is good for America and good for Israel. Their belief in the efficacy of the deal in no way goes against the university’s support for the State of Israel.”
Nagel wanted to show students that supporting the deal was legitimate and also wanted to help confused students navigate this complex political discussion. In a university that is so publicly and proudly Zionist, undergraduate supporters of the Iran deal may feel underrepresented at an event that only showcased the downsides of the deal.
Representing the student body is, after all, at the core of a student council’s responsibility. All of the student leaders interviewed agreed that catering to undergraduates interests and passions is their utmost priority.
“As student leaders, we are charged with the responsibility of facilitating the needs of the students,” said SCWSC president Rachel Rolnick. “That means that when students want to plan events or bring in speakers, we act as liaisons with the University to best execute their plans.”
Along that vein it would seem that unless a particular issue is brought to student council’s attention, the student government has no need or responsibility to host events that may contrast popular undergraduate interests.
As Nagel put it, the question becomes whether student council has a responsibility to create its own programming independent of student interests. “In this regard, we would move from being representatives of the student body to leaders of the student body, creating a direction for students that we feel is appropriate for our population,” he said.
In terms of the Iran deal specifically, Rolnick knew that YUPAC and the Israel Club had made such strong efforts to mobilize students that the anti-deal sentiments on campus had become the clear majority. But until students actively approached her to sponsor an event that supported the deal, Rolnick saw no need to initiate an exclusively pro-deal discussion.
“Had another club wanted to do the same [as YUPAC and the Israel Club] to present the other side, we would have been more than happy to carry out our responsibilities as student leaders and to have done what we could to have made that happen,” she said.
Nonetheless, Rolnick maintained that an event educating students on the benefits of the deal would attract a crowd.
“I believe the student body would support such an event,” she said. “It is not fair to assume that all students in a University support one side of such an important issue and it would be unfair to marginalize those students.”
YSU president Noam Safier echoed Rolnick’s remarks and said that a student government has a responsibility to represent the majority of the student body. To that end, he also maintained that students leaders may “take a side” on a political issue if it reflects the majority of student opinions. Yet he also noted the difficulties to this approach.
“To what extent should the student government represent the student body?” he pondered over email. “There are ideas that are not allowed on campus such as those of religious or anti-Israel figures that preach an ideology counter to our own. Is this issue [Iran] different than those?”
The notion that certain political ideas are either antithetical or prescriptive to the university is another issue that students have been grappling with as of late. In a letter to the YU administration published by The Commentator’s editorial board, students asked that the administration show greater sensitivity to students who may not hold political opinions that the university leaders deem as a given.
“Administrators should not implore students to adopt certain political views…Emails from administrators ‘urging’ students towards a specific stance detracts from this freedom, and undermines the free-range discussion integral to the university environment,” the article said.
“We all need to be careful about realizing the heterogeneity of our students. I know I forget sometimes,” Nagel said.
While the student council presidents may advocate for a neutral representation of the student body, some felt that student clubs have much different responsibilities than the councils.
“The Israel Club and YUPAC are a different story,” said Safier. “They represent the members of their specific club only. They do not have a responsibility to present both sides because it doesn’t fit with their agenda of getting students involved.”
The club heads themselves see it differently. YUPAC president Racheli Weil said that although YUPAC mainly focuses on bipartisan issues, the goal of the club is to teach students how to actively approach those issues by lobbying and educating students about important legislative procedures.
“Since most issues that come up have multiple sides to them, we strongly encourage students to do research on the issues that face Israel and America, and if one feels strongly about one side of an issue over the other, we believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Weil said.
Student leaders are still hoping to address the Iran deal through an event when school resumes in October. They hope that the event will feature speakers from both sides of the issue so that the event can be as educational as possible for the entire student body.
Author Note: Student leaders from the Israel Club were unable to be reached for comment.