Although unfortunately in Yeshiva’s case, this means its appalling Moody’s rating – B3 – is affirmed as unchanged.
In the wake of expensive scandal after expensive scandal, some of it having to do with the fallout of the sort of conflict of interest you get when your virtually all-male, all-buddy board of trustees has its fingers in each others’ hedge funds (I’m looking at you, Bernie Madoff and Ezra Merkin), Yeshiva threatens to collapse as a viable financial entity, which Moody’s couldn’t help noticing.
Given the severity of deficits and limited liquidity, the university may exhaust liquidity before completing a restructuring of the organization.
On the up side, Yeshiva’s president, who so far has dealt with the Madoff scandal, the conflicted board of trustees scandal, and the financial collapse by literally trying to airbrush Madoff from Yeshiva history, ignoring alumni begging him to alter the board of trustees, and denying any financial difficulties at the school, has finally decided to drop a hint or two of trouble.
In a recent interview with The Commentator, a Y.U. student newspaper, [Richard] Joel blamed the university’s deficits on a “lack of effective and adequate reporting and controls.”
… He added that some department heads lied about the financial health of their departments.
Well, when the head of your school can sometimes be less than forthcoming, you’re likely to conclude that you can … dance around a little bit too…