Student Union officials and the Hiatt Career Center have begun collaborating on a tentative plan to provide some sort of academic recognition for students who take on campus leadership roles. Currently, students may receive academic credit or a transcript notation for academic internships, but Rusmir Music, Hiatt's assistant director of Experiential Programs, said he wants to apply that model to other positions on campus.

"What [students] do in your extracurricular activities really is connected to your academic learning," Music said. Extracurricular activities would be renamed "co-curriculars" because "they really happen in parallel with your academic learning," he said.

Students could potentially receive recognition on their transcript for serving as a club executive board member, community advisor, student government official, Roosevelt fellow or athlete, Music said.

What exactly the recognition would be remains unclear.

"We're nowhere near a plan," Music said. But he indicated that students may receive a written citation on their transcript or actually gain academic credit in the future. "We're just having some discussion to see what the plan might be and how we could go about doing it," he said.

Students would not be able to receive credit for extracurricular activities in which they participated prior to this new experiential learning program, he said.

Before the new program can be implemented, Music said it will be submitted first to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee to vote on and then to the Registrar for approval.

One member of the UCC who was granted anonymity said, "Personally I think it would be unfortunate if students began taking on 'extracurricular' activities merely in an attempt to rack up credits or to fill out their transcripts rather than for enjoyment." The UCC?member is not authorized to discuss this issue.

Jason Gray '10, Massell Quad senator, said students deserve more recognition for their extracurricular involvements than simply the satisfaction of placement on a rsum. "Students sometimes put equal, if not more, effort into extracurricular involvements than academic activities," Gray said.

The added recognition for extracurricular involvement might also help students when they apply to graduate schools or jobs. "Anything that goes on your transcript that has the seal of approval from Brandeis carries more weight than something that's just on your rsum," Music said.

"Not many schools do this," Music said. "If Brandeis decides to do this, we will really be cutting edge.