Concerned that the existing first-year writing program is inadequate, the faculty senate gave unanimous approval to long-discussed reforms at its meeting last Thursday.Beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year, the University Seminar in Humanistic Inquiries+Writing option, which consists of a 3-hour-per-week USEM course and a weekly, hour-long writing session, will be eliminated.

Incoming students will have to take a USEM course and a separate UWS course designed to ensure all students learn basic academic writing, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said.

The proposal also includes changes to the existing undergraduate writing requirements to include an optional oral-intensive course.

Currently, the University requires students to choose between taking a USEM and a separate UWS, or taking a USEM+W.

Students electing the USEM+W option must take two writing intensive courses, while students taking a UWS need only take one.

Beginning with the class of 2011, students can choose between taking the UWS and two writing-intensive courses, or the UWS, one writing-intensive course and an oral-intensive course. The UWS will be reshaped with an aim toward better standardization of instruction.

The reform effort began in January 2005 when Prof. Richard Lansing (ROCL) drafted a proposal to change the program. Lansing sits on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee that developed the newly approved proposal.

Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong said the new UWS course will focus on improving writing skills so all students write on the same skill level when they complete the course.

The new UWS will include "four major assignments for a total of 25 to 30 pages in final drafts: a close reading, a lens essay, a research-based essay and a position paper," the proposal says.

Each UWS section will be limited to 15 students and meet twice each week. The average class size now is 17. No student will be able to place out of the UWS.

University writing director Dawn Skorczewski, who will train all University Writing Seminar instructors, said the UWS lacks clarity and organization.

"There was no consistency in terms of what kinds of writing people did and how much they did," she said. "It was all sort of a free for all."

All UWS sections will have the same basic structure and workload, but will offer students different "intellectually stimulating" topics on which they will focus their writing, according to the proposal.

Skorczewski said students often complain in their UWS course evaluations that the class lacks focus. She said the new course will stress critical writing skills, such as formulating arguments in their writing.

"I think students are writing competent arguments, but they're not necessarily complex analytically," she said.

Jaffe echoed Skorczewski: "We're not getting students to learn to write as well as they should," he said.

The new oral communication courses will require students to give at least two 2-to-5 minute oral assignments, such as a debate or a class discussion.

The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee-USEM Review Committee's proposal said the changes are necessary because the USEM+W instructors have trouble coordinating the separate hour-long writing session with the teaching assistants who teach them.

"I believe students here at Brandeis deserve and need a coherent and consistent first-year writing course," Skorczewski told the Justice last October.