The State Department of Education in Albany notified the Graduate School of Education at Yeshiva University–now three years old–that it can grant no doctoral degrees this June unless the records of all doctoral candidates have been examined and certified by the Department in Albany.
The Education Department announced that until a number of changes in the procedures of the Yeshiva school had been made, it would not automatically license graduates to teach in New York state. Yeshiva students or graduates who want state teaching licenses will have to submit transcripts of their school records to the Bureau of Teacher Education and Certification for analysis.
These demands were incorporated in a letter to Dr. Samuel Belkin, Yeshiva University president, from Dr. Frank R. Kille, State Associate Commissioner for higher and professional education. Dr. Kille asserted that the school had too many part-time and not enough full-time professors and that admission standards were not high enough. He asked changes in the administrative staff; better care in evaluating transfer credits, better programs for doctorate studies and better qualified experts to approve such programs.
The crackdown by the New York State Education department against procedures of the Graduate School of Education of Yeshiva University, the only such school under Jewish auspices in the United States, was followed today by the resignation of its dean, Dr. Ben-Jamin Fine.
Dr. Belkin said the procedures used launching the two-year old doctoral program “do not exist today.” Referring to charges of insufficient teaching staff, Dr. Belkin said: “We started with a part-time faculty. But we have already improved this situation. Today we have a faculty of 40 full-time members.
“The conditions referred to by the State Education Department concern but a minuscule aspect of the school’s total program and, at best, involve a handful of students. The record should be made clear that in the past three years the Graduate School of Education has presented only a few doctorates to individuals, many of whom were in long-time attendance at the university.” Dr. Belkin stated.
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