Dates in BW based Universes

When defining an object based on the dates in BW, for example Cal Year Month, the year month comes across as character data type, not as a date data type. Is it possible to convert them to date data types in the Universe (by definining a new object using MDX?). For example, if the year month is 2010 JUL, I would like the date object to be July 1 2010. This would make it much simpler to sort them in the Universe. If there is another way, please let me know. Thanks!

Regards,

Nishant.