The Jewish Star has learned that Yeshiva University will lay off 60 employees. This follows the announcement several months ago of millions of dollars in losses incurred in the debacle involving Bernard Madoff, former chairman of Yeshiva’s Sy Syms School of Business.
President Richard Joel made the grim announcement Monday in a letter addressed to the “Yeshiva University Community,” obtained by The Jewish Star.
The cuts will be made across the university’s Manhattan campuses in an attempt to trim the budget by $30 million, he said.
An angry YU employee who lost her job on Monday spoke to The Jewish Star on the condition that she not be identified.
“They affect the little people, the people that make the university run. The administration is the bread and butter of the university. Had all the senior staff taken a two percent cut it wouldn’t have been necessary to cut all these jobs for the people that aren’t making that much money… Richard Joel makes half a million dollars a year. Why didn’t he take a pay cut? “
The letter describes the layoffs as part of an overall staff reduction that, including voluntary separation packages and retirement, will eliminate a total of 120 positions, believed to be about 2.5 percent of YU’s total workforce.
