No Student Left Behind

Dr. Hosepg Talyosef had barely sat down in his chair at the Faculty of Engineering’s administrative offices when the Swords of Iron War broke out. To add to the many challenges that naturally come with the role of CAO, he had to cope with those of the new reality. “We have students who were at the party in Re’im, students whose friends were murdered, students who live in the Gaza Envelope and were there in person, or their families were,” he shares. “We also have a high percentage of people on reserve duty: 33% of our students, 15% of the lecturers, and 25% of our TAs, men and women alike. The students are in hysterics, and rightfully so. It’s going to be a challenging year. Short, condensed, and even when they’ll no longer have to serve on reserve duty—the effects of October 7^th will no longer be as strong, more people will be drafted throughout the year, and that will impact next year. And all of this doesn’t change the fact that we’re supposed to train excellent engineers with a steady knowledge base. Our goal is to get all of the students to finish this year as best as they can, without hindering their knowledge.”

You can count on Dr. Talyosef (63, father of 4 children, all grown up) to meet challenges head on. He arrived at the Faculty of Engineering directly from the Bar-Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology and Advance Materials, to replace Dina Yamini, who retired. “I’m a trained Doctor of Chemistry. My professional career began with a BSc in chemical engineering from Ben-Gurion University and Shenkar. I then founded a start-up company which did pre-press for textile prints using lasers, which I sold six years later. I moved to the U.S. where I acquired my MBA. When I came back, I started teaching chemistry at Ariel University, but it didn’t make sense to teach it without being a chemist. That’s how I found myself at Bar-Ilan, doing my MSc and PhD in chemistry under Prof. Doron Orbach. When I graduated, some 20 years ago, I joined the Nanotechnology Institute’s founding team, which I’ve been managing for the past six years. About six months ago I was asked to come and take over as CAO of the Faculty of Engineering. Dina built this place from the ground up, and did an incredible job; the Faculty is on an upward swing and is expected to double in the upcoming years. It’s a real challenge in which I was asked to be involved.”

These pre-war challenges include, for example, the construction of a new building. “Four new departments were added over the past four years and they’re starting to fill up. This means new researchers, new labs, a significant number of new students. The new building is set to stand between the current one and the music building. It’s much more complex because each department has a unique character and needs. I’ve joined at the implementation phase. Then there are my two professional challenges from my time at the Nanotechnology Institute, which drive me: the first is on an international level—to emphasize creating and strengthening ties between our Faculty and others around the world. Naturally, there are personal relationships between researchers, but I want to achieve a twin-faculties situation. That way we can do student exchanges and shared degree programs, particularly for the more advanced degrees. My second challenge is excellence—I want our compass, everything we work for and everything we do, will be driven by the desire to excel; not just doing something for the sake of saying that we did it, but doing it as well as we can, and always striving to do better.”

Dr. Talyosef mentions treatment of students as one example of excellence: “It’s already a challenging degree to begin with, and as far as I’m concerned, excellence also means knowing how to teach and treating students like human beings rather than something to domineer. We keep track of the assessment surveys the students fill and see where we need to make adjustments in order to improve the way in which they receive information and increase their satisfaction. There are quite a few researchers who are so gifted in their field, to the point where it’s hard for them to see that what’s clear to them may not be so clear to others. The university established an instruction improvement unit whose goal is to help instructors teach better, clearer, and more coherently. We put a lot of effort into improving the courses, making sure that we expose our lecturers to all of the options, and when the feedback isn’t great, we sit down and work together to help them improve their classes and make them more fair and accessible to the students. Another point of focus is optimizing workloads, so that it would reflect the course’s credits.”

Trying to make sense of a very chaotic situation

Then came the war and turned everything upside down. Talyoself had to change his work plan as well. “This state of war changes things, it forces us all to adjust very quickly. The semester got shorter, lecturers need to cut their curricula according to the CHE guidelines that were also approve by the rector—all without hindering the students’ knowledge. It was not an easy process. And as if that’s not enough, we have lecturers and TAs on reserve duty, and we had to find replacements for some. All track directors sat down and went through a significant process that required drastic change in a relatively short time, and we hope it will answer all of the evolving needs.”

“In addition, we have a huge, dynamic benefits system that’s trying to make sense of a very chaotic situation. Even when the academic year starts, if a student is coming in after two months in Gaza—their head won’t be in the game. The university created a free emotional support hotline for students and faculty members, and started a crowd funding campaign to financially support soldiers on the front lines. We’ll work according to the needs that arise. We held a Zoom lecture with a psychologist on the subject of coping with stress and anxiety, and organized a therapeutic drumming workshop for our employees, which was a hit. We’re in constant contact with all of our students, and sent those who we concluded are in a rough emotional state to get help. On top of that, the rector offers special benefits to students on reserve duty, students whose spouses are on reserve duty, or anyone affected by the war. These include credit exemptions in correlation with days served; three optional test days per course, of which they can choose two and pick the higher grade; mentors; and a set number of courses on a fail/pass basis to ensure that low scores won’t affect their GPA. We’ve cleared out the summer semester, which is usually reserved for high school students, and will keep those days open for students who need to make up and bridge gaps. Additionally, our Faculty has 34% fewer tests, and grades will be given according to alternative assessments such as written reports or projects.”

Making it through this year, says Talyosef, will be a challenge for everyone. Students, academic staff, administrative staff—everyone’s taken a real hit, and they’re all expected to take on a significant load in a less time. “But at the end of the day, our goal is to train well-rounded engineers who went through the full process, and whose knowledge base is no different than that of students from other periods. We’re looking for ways to alleviate our students’ very real struggles, without going too much into personal details and without hindering their ability to graduate, get a diploma, and be on par with any other graduate at any other time. Whenever a nervous student calls me, I tell them we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that those who start this year also finish it successfully. We’re not going to leave any student behind. Our goal is to have everyone succeed, and we will truly do everything in our power to achieve that.”