Over the summer, the TABC night seder program experienced a drastic change. In past years, students, with an 85+ Gemara average, who consistently attended night seder or participated in bus seder(program where students who live outside of the Bergen County area learn on the bus), would be exempt from their Gemara midterm and/or final depending on the semester. At the beginning of the year, the program changed so that students who wished to be exempt from their Gemara midterm and/or final, depending on the semester, would have to learn and be tested on the 7th perek of Pesachim or Parshat Chukat with Rashi. Attendance was no longer the requirement to be exempt from the midterm and/or final; instead the exemption was determined by the night seder test. This change received a lot of criticism, as students did not want to be limited to what they can learn in order to be exempt from taking the Gemara midterm and/or final, nor did they enjoy the idea of taking a test to be exempt.
When the school year started, approximately 30 students signed up for night seder, but very few students would show up. Shlomo Gellman(‘20), one of the students who came consistently, said that he didn't like the night seder program but he went because he didn't want to procrastinate. Why were so many students not present? The new night seder program was established to get students who were committed to learning to join the program in order to fill the beis with a serious learning atmosphere. However, the opposite happened, as students found a loophole. Students would learn the required material the week before the night seder test instead of showing up for night seder. Therefore, most students didn’t show up as attendance was not mandatory. Yitzy Kopstick(‘18) said that he planned on studying for the test a week before as there was no need for him to show up, while Aryeh Lejtman(‘18) said that he disliked the new night seder program so much, that he would not take the test. After reviewing the situation, the TABC administration decided to go back to last year’s night seder system, following Sukkot. On the first day back from Sukkot break, the beis was packed during night seder as students were able to learn whatever they wanted without being tested on the material. Additionally, the Sunday morning shiur, which was canceled as a result of the new night seder program, resumed.