Following an extensive review of the University language departments, professors said what the departments need most is more faculty.Reviews by outside committees revealed the need for more faculty and greater collaboration between language departments. While faculty members said the administration has been slow to authorize searches for more professors, administrators said change can only come as more positions are vacated throughout academic departments.

After Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe requested all academic departments prepare a "self-study" last fall, the language departments were selected first to undergo further review, according to Dian Fox-Hindley, chair of the Romance and Comparative Languages (ROCL) department.

Jaffe said he and the language professors agreed that a review would help direct the programs and reevaluate their missions. The Hebrew and Arabic programs were reviewed during the 2003-2004 school year, ROCL in 2004-2005, and German, Russian and Asian Languages last fall.

"It is helpful to have these external reviews as a reality check on what we are doing," Jaffe said.

Three different committees made up of outside faculty visited the University for each review. Fox-Hindley said when the ROCL committee visited to evaluate the department last March, its members met with students, faculty and administrators to identify strengths and weaknesses of the department.

Jaffe declined to release the committees' reports because he said he wanted faculty to feel comfortable expressing themselves honestly in the reviews.

But Fox-Hindley said the committee, which submitted a report in May, recommended the department hire additional faculty and implement stronger communication between faculty and students, as well as between different areas of the department, including among the French, Spanish, Italian and Comparative Literature programs.

While the suggestion to improve communication is being implemented, Fox-Hindley said she knew the administration would not embrace all the recommendations.

"They said every area of the department needs more faculty," Fox-Hindley said. "Of course we can't afford that. There are limits to what we can do to respond."

Jaffe said the University would be hard pressed to hire more faculty for languages.

"Hires in this area will have to be considered relative to hires in all other departments, as faculty retire or depart and thereby create vacancies," he said.

Jaffe said the University recently hired a visiting professor of Hebrew Literature and a new Assistant professor in East Asian Literature.

Because Prof. Angela Perez Mejia (ROCL) has taken a two-year leave of absence, Fox-Hindley said Jaffe authorized a departmental search for a replacement. She said her department has nearly completed a search for a position in Latin American Literature and Culture.

Fox-Hindley said it is "disappointing" that Jaffe has not authorized a search in the French program because someone is retiring at the end of this year.

Prof. Edward Kaplan (ROCL), who teaches French, Comparative Literature and Religious Studies, said the committee's main recommendation is to hire more professors so they can offer more French language courses.

"These recommendations are in to the administration. The administration has to respond," Kaplan said.

Fox-Hindley also said she would like to offer more Italian courses but cannot because there are only two professors in the program.

"Every part of the department would like to be bigger, but one of the charms of Brandeis is that it's a smaller school," she said.

She said the different programs in the department do not overlap much in their teaching, and it will be useful for them to share effective strategies and be more aware of what the others are doing.

The committee also recommended that lower-level language courses be more coordinated with upper-level courses, Fox-Hindley said.

"Students are not feeling prepared for upper-level courses," she said, adding that some members of the faculty feel the same way.

Fox-Hindley said the review did result in Jaffe agreeing to lower the size of language classes from 20 to 18.

Courses will have more sections next year, she said.

"Twenty is really too big for language instruction, and the dean recognized this," she said.

However, the process is difficult, she said.

"You don't like to hear that some things need improvement," Fox-Hindley said, adding that it was helpful to have someone from outside the department offer new perspective. "[The administration] is listening. They're paying attention, and we feel like it's been a good process.