The Social Science Council and several professors approached by the Justice last week have expressed varying degrees of sympathy and support for Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe's curricular proposals, saying that he has spurred warranted discussion about the scarcity of resources.Although no one interviewed said he or she agrees entirely with the dean's proposals, they said they appreciate his challenge to the University to consider where compromises can be made to save resources for future initiatives.

"I believe that Dean Jaffe has done us a real service by writing a plan and challenging us to reflect on where we want to go as a university and examine what kinds of trade-offs there will need to be," said Marya Levenson, the director of teacher education in the education program.

The Social Science Council sent the Faculty Review Committee a letter on Feb. 2, saying that it welcomes the dean's efforts to extend most graduate fellowships to a fifth year and that an overall review of University finances is necessary.

"We find the long-range effort to re-allocate resources across arts and sciences fundamentally positive and rational, and acknowledge that a diminished presence in some disciplines of the arts and sciences might present the price that Brandeis must pay for sustaining excellence in the others," the letter states.

But the letter cautioned against relying too heavily upon enrollment statistics to determine the quality of education. The council said while it would like to learn more about the dean's proposed interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in the social sciences, this program should not arrive with the elimination of the linguistics major.

Levenson said Jaffe did not create his proposals out of a "vacuum" and that she is pleased he acknowledges the need to expand interdisciplinary programs and shift resources toward other areas. She said while she does not support Jaffe's entire proposal, he has been open to different ideas.

Prof. Eve Marder (BIO) said she realizes the importance of careful planning in deciding the University's future curriculum, which she believes Jaffe has aptly attempted. Marder said that she supports the dean's effort to replace outdated courses with more innovative programs.

Marder said the community's response to Jaffe's proposals compares to some reactions to the founding of the neuroscience department, which she said was "patently absurd." She said that neuroscience's success suggests that people should have more faith in new ideas.

While most professors in the humanities do not support the dean's proposals, Michael Rosbash (BIO) said the faculty would benefit from Jaffe's proposal to increase faculty salaries. According to Rosbash, "standing still is not an option."

"If you want to do new things and raise faculty salaries, you have to cut something - it's just a question of what," he said.

Peter Conrad (SOC) said many members of the community have overreacted by responding to Jaffe's plan as if it directly threatened the University, and that perhaps the dean has been too harshly criticized. He also said the University needs to maintain a competitive curriculum and that it is sometimes necessary to review certain courses offerings.

"It must have touched on a very sensitive and symbolic chord," Conrad said, referring to the community's reaction to Jaffe's proposal to cut certain offerings like ancient Greek.

The council's letter states that if cuts must be made, they would like to see a "fuller presentation of the budgetary premises" because it is unclear why the arts and sciences must reduce its faculty.