Marta Kauffman '78, a producer and co-creator of the television series Friends, and other alumni in the arts industry returned to their alma mater Saturday to speak at the "State of the Arts at Brandeis" program.During her visit, Kauffman agreed verbally to teach a writing seminar next semester. The agreement, which resulted from a discussion over the weekend between Kauffman and Theater Arts Chair Eric Hill, was confirmed by Hill in an e-mail to the Justice.

The length and content of the seminar are still undetermined. "Marta has a busy schedule that we are trying fit to our spring academic schedule," Hill wrote.

Scott Edmiston, the director of the office of the arts, said the details of what Kauffman will teach are still unclear. "She said to me she hoped she would be here in the spring," he said.

The panel, organized by Edmiston, featured Kaufman; George Kahn '73, a jazz musician and the president of Playing Records; sculptor and art professor Peter Lipsitt '61; Nick Rabkin '69, executive director of the Chicago Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College; playwright and screenwriter Theresa Rebceck '83 and Adam D. Weinberg '77, the Alice Pratt Brown director of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City.

Kaufman encouraged the students in the audience to pursue their artistic ambitions, even if that meant having to rebel against their parents' wishes.

"If you have to go to New York and be an artist, it doesn't matter what your parents say," she said.

Kaufman praised her experience at Brandeis and its influences on her career. "Brandeis is where I learned to be a human being," she said. "You can't be an artist until you're a human being."

The speakers discussed issues relating to the arts at Brandeis, such as whether art is being devalued in society, how artists can initiate social change and what makes the arts program at Brandeis unique.

Kaufman was optimistic about the state of the arts at universities. "The arts are alive and well," she said, especially at colleges.

She did mention, however, that television does not involve the creation of art, and that she "feels daily the separation" between "true art" and television and film. Kaufman noted that television is limited by restrictions imposed by networks, stating jokingly that the only subject she is allowed to talk about is "relationships."

Kaufman cited one of her "Friends" episodes as educational while discussing the connection between art and social change. She said she was proud of an episode in which the characters Monica and Rachel fight over the last condom in their apartment, stating it promoted safe sex among teenagers who viewed the television characters as role models.

Other alumni speakers praised the role of the artist in modern society. Reinbeck described the purpose of the artist as "the search for truth." Weinberg explained how art contributes to "open thinking," and allows people to imagine concepts in different ways.