Correction appended.After over four months of deliberation, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe made an apparent about-face on his proposals to eliminate the music composition graduate program, the linguistics major, the teaching of ancient Greek, as well as a reduction in the number of faculty in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and physics departments.

His proposals were intended to shift resources within the arts and sciences and to alleviate what he has called a "structural academic deficit."

The dean's announcement at a special faculty meeting Thursday came on the heels of mounting faculty opposition to the plan and the release of the Faculty Review Committee's advisory report on the proposals, which rejected nearly all of Jaffe's suggestions.

"I understand and accept that the process that we chose to pursue these discussions has turned out to be problematic," Jaffe said. "I would like now to move on and get as constructive a result as we can."

Jaffe is still committed, however, to following through with a three-year plan, approved in principle by the University Board of Trustees, to improve faculty salaries and graduate stipends, Krauss told the Justice after the meeting. That initiative was a large part of Jaffe's original proposals. The dean said he plans to continue discussions about curricular change with specific departments and programs.

Krauss said she has learned that academic planning that involving the entire community is "extremely difficult."

She said the faculty senate sent a "clear message" that they want administrators to make decisions in consultation with affected parties.

"I think that [Jaffe's] effort to be very transparent and to engage the entire faculty in a constructive dialogue about the future was too difficult," Krauss said. "The faculty made it clear that they are not going to publicly endorse a cut in somebody else's program."

Speaking at the meeting, Jaffe addressed the targeted cuts and approved of departments' and programs' intentions to strengthen their curriculum in consultation with his office.

He said he would work with classical studies' commitment to discuss ideas for curricular reform within the department.

"If any of these discussions lead to recommended changes in the classics curriculum or degree requirements, those will be brought to the UCC for their consideration," Jaffe said.

He also committed himself to working with the linguistics and music composition programs in a similar fashion.

Following Jaffe's remarks, Prof. Harry Mairson (COSI) spoke on behalf of the Faculty Senate Council and added to Krauss' praise for the work of the Faculty Review Committee and its chair, Prof. Richard Parmentier (ANTH).

"The best way to facilitate faculty discussion of goals for Arts and Sciences and the consensus building required for any accepted plan was for the dean's proposals for cuts to be withdrawn," Mairson said. "That appears to be happening. These proposals antagonized and polarized the faculty, making discussion difficult, if not impossible."

After Jaffe spoke, Krauss, who led the meeting, invited additional comments. Prof. Gordie Fellman (SOC) said the University was too focused on money and that he wished faculty meetings would return to being a discussion about the curriculum.

Prof. Marc Brettler, chair of the NEJS department, said though he was pleased with the committee's report, he felt it did not address impending budgetary shortfalls. He also said he feared the University would have a difficult time recovering from the controversy surrounding the dean's proposals.

"I feel as a result of this process, there may have been a tremendous loss of energy to move forward," Brettler said.

The administration does not share Brettler's fear, Krauss responded, saying that progress will continue to be made. She later told the Justice that she asked the committee to not consider budgetary implications when formulating their recommendations.

Krauss said that once certain priorities have been established, other goals in the University's "wish list" may take longer to accomplish.

"It's all about choices," Krauss said, offering hypothetical outcomes of varying priorities. "It may mean that we don't fix our buildings as fast as we want to. It may mean that curricular changes take longer to accomplish. It may mean we don't build up our financial reserves the way we should, as quickly as we wanted."

After Mairson concluded his remarks on behalf of the Faculty Senate, he added his own sentiments, saying he is "relieved to hear senior administrators talking more like college professors and less like chief executive officers."

Mairson quoted a passage from the Talmud, a Jewish book of law, to express his feelings.

"The rabbis on the Senate Council believe that a modern interpretation of this Talmudic adage is that if we act like jerks, we don't have a University," Mairson said. "Thank you, profoundly, for setting standards of professional behavior for all of us," he said, addressing Jaffe and Krauss.

Mairson endorsed the committee's statement that academic planning should not include the announcement of future termination of any positions currently held by tenured faculty.

"To tell faculty who have devoted their professional lives to this institution that the academic interests which are their calling suddenly no longer matter is a social injustice within our own university community," Mairson said.

Union Director of Academic Affairs Alan Tannenwald '05, the only student who spoke at the meeting, said the Union endorses the committee's report, but objected to the exclusion of students and alumni from high-level integrated planning discussions.

Tannenwald said other schools like the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University include students in their planning processes.

"Why is Brandeis, an institution with a greater commitment to and history of student involvement, not doing the same?" Tannenwald asked.

Mairson also said he is pleased the administration is reviewing the University's finances, and that this is a necessary step to ensure Brandeis remains healthy.

"I want [Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice-President] Peter French to talk about management of University finances," Mairson said. "But I also want a French Department."

CORRECTION (March 9, 2005): An earlier version of this article states, "He accepted the committee's proposal to retain ancient Greek with the classical studies department's commitment to teach low-enrolled advanced language classes without pay..." The committee did not make such a recommendation.