Correction appendedThe committee impaneled by Provost Marty Krauss and the Faculty Senate Committee to evaluate Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe's academic planning initiatives issued an evaluation Feb. 15, rejecting nearly all of his proposals and criticizing the way the dean approached the deliberative process.

The Dean retracted those proposals Thursday in the face of rising opposition from the many members of the faculty and the Faculty Review Committee (FRC), though that committee's report was non-binding and any decisions regarding the Dean's plan would have had to come from the Provost's office.

The 34-page report, published on the President's integrated planning Web site, said the dean's suggestions to make cuts in physics, as well as to eliminate the music composition Ph.D program, the linguistics major and the teaching of ancient Greek were unacceptable. It also said that no more than two faculty positions should be cut from the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department.

The Dean's proposals sought to create additional faculty positions in other departments and to help solve what the Dean has termed an "academic structural deficit" by shifting financial resources in the arts and sciences.

"In sum, we are distressed that the Dean's document accepts a level budget for Arts and Sciences," the report states. "We recommend that the Dean energetically advocate the interests of the School of Arts and Sciences in the upcoming integrated planning meetings."

The committee suggested the administration work harder to encourage donors to endow the academy and to ensure that all directors of major centers are full-time, tenure-track faculty.

"We maintain that any department, faced with problems identified by the Dean or a planning committee, deserves the chance for 'repair,' a time to address the articulated concerns, to propose remedies, and to implement corrective action," the report said in conclusion.

Discontinuations

The committee wrote the Ph.D. program in music composition is vital, but seems disconnected from the rest of Arts and Sciences in that a low number of undergraduate courses cross-listed with the program.

"We are not persuaded that this is the right time to announce the termination of graduate study in music composition, but we are convinced that the department needs to rethink its program to rebalance efforts toward the undergraduate mission, to expand linkages to other disciplines in Arts and Sciences and to increase the efficiency and integration of its two doctoral programs," the report said.

In support of ancient Greek, which also faced elimination, the report said, "enrollment for basic Greek (level 10) has risen every year for the last four years, with enrollment at 24 in spring 2005."

The report said that enrollment numbers seem to drop off in levels 20 and 30, but such decreases are common among similar universities.

"The [Faculty Review Committee] agrees with the many voices from within and from without the halls of our academy that Brandeis as a scholarly community cannot build toward the future without instruction and scholarship in ancient Greek," the report said.

The committee said it does not support elimination of Linguistics, but proposed an alternative to the current department, "a more broadly-based interdisciplinary program that might enhance the teaching of linguistics at Brandeis..."

Reductions

Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, which said it could manage the loss of two full-time faculty members, was targeted for additional reductions in Jaffe's proposal.

The committee said it supports keeping NEJS strong, though the department needs to evaluate the effectiveness of its graduate programs and should "seek ways to unify the disciplinary and topical diversity that are the hallmark of this unique department."

The report also dismissed the proposed cuts in physics, saying the department "must be kept strong because it is the foundation upon which chemistry and the life sciences are built." Jaffe's proposal sought to cut research in high energy physics, but the committee said this was unwise because of the importance of such research to the department's viability.

'Signaling Costs'

The report stated that, because of the way in which the planning process was handled, the "University has already suffered" and the "faculty feel demoralized."

According to the report, junior faculty and mid-career associate professors have indicated they plan to seek employment elsewhere because Brandeis is not committed to staffing certain areas of the curriculum.

The report said these signaling costs that have resulted from continued media coverage of the integrated planning debate are incalculable. The committee cited multiple letters sent to the University from other universities and independent academic organizations, opposing cuts in areas suggested in Jaffe's plan.

"Several faculty members have told us that ongoing job searches have already been jeopardized in that top candidates are wondering what kind of scholarly future they might have at an institution contemplating of cuts in so many traditionally central areas of the academy," the report said.

The report also questions "whether the administration has thought about the tradeoff between, for example, retaining an additional $1 million for academic initiatives vs. using those funds to increase financial aid from, for example, $7 million to $8 million."

"We believe that a prospective high-scoring applicant to Brandeis might be deterred from matriculating because we have decided to contemplate cuts in the tradition liberal arts disciplines," the report said.


CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS (March 9, 2005):
An earlier version of this article stated that the FRC rejected the dean's suggestion to make cuts to the Near Eastern and Judaic studies department. In fact, the committee's report recommended that no more than two faculty positions be cut from the department and that plans for additional reductions be postponed.

An earlier version of the article ambiguously stated, "The report questioned whether a hypothetical cut of $1 million from the Arts and Science budget, which might eliminate an entire program or department, is a productive trade-off increasing the financial aid budget from $7 to $8 million." The report more clearly states that the committee questions "whether the administration has thought about the tradeoff between, for example, retaining an additional $1 million for academic initiatives vs. using those funds to increase financial aid from, for example, $7 million to $8 million."

An earlier version of the article misquoted the report. The correct quote is: "We believe that a prospective high-scoring applicant to Brandeis might be deterred from matriculating because we have decided to contemplate cuts in these traditional liberal arts disciplines."