From the Professor's Desk

by,  Judah Diament Rav Yisroel Meir Kagan is known popularly as “The Chofetz Chaim ”, after his famous work by the same name. In klal 10:1-2 of Sefer Chofetz Chaim , he codifies the rules regarding when one is allowed to share negative or damaging facts about another Jew in order to achieve a positive goal, such as correcting an improper behavior. The first rule of the seven is that one must have witnessed the incident or behavior in question firsthand, and must not have only heard about if from someone else. The fourth rule is that one may not exaggerate the facts, even though his intention in doing so is to achieve something good. Since arriving in Yeshiva College as a professor of Computer Science in 2016, on multiple occasions I have heard or read claims that cheating is “widespread” in YU. Like any other decent person, I was and am deeply disturbed by the idea that YU students would cheat. Equally disturbing, however, is the complete lack of rigor and care with which I...

by,  Judah Diament Periodically someone asks me if Software Engineers (SE) spend their days sitting in front of their computers, or if they interact with other people. There are two assumptions, both wrong, that go into the question, and it's important to address both assumptions so that students in all majors/fields have a more accurate understanding of what the working world is like. This will be a brief post because it's a really simple point, albeit a fundamental one. It is often assumed that an SE sits in front of his computer all day writing code. It is equally assumed that people on other career paths (law, accounting, finance, human resources, marketing, etc.) do not spend hours a day sitting in front of their computers. Both of these assumptions are wrong. Collaborating with others: If you work in a large company, no matter what your career/role/field is, you will collaborate with many people, sit in many meetings, and make many presentations. The more junior yo...

by, Judah Diament We have seen time and again that public figures, no matter how hard they try, can’t hide past mistakes. When you take on a public role, eventually the truth will come out. As the chair of the Department of Computer Science, I am no longer a private citizen, so it is safe to assume that my skeletons will eventually be made public. As such, I thought it wise to preemptively release the information and get ahead of the news cycle. So, here is my first confession: when I was an undergraduate student at YU, I received a C in Medieval Jewish History, a C+ in Intermediate Hebrew II, and a C- in Calculus 1. It was not the professors’ fault in any one of those cases; I had wonderful professors (Rabbi Dr. Bernard Rosensweig, Dr. Richard Steiner, and Dr. Norman Rosenfeld a”h , respectively.) I simply failed to perform at an adequate level. I know it is hard to imagine that someone who claims to be competent in any field could have possibly received multiple grades lower ...