The Board of Trustees spent most of its meeting last Wednesday approving several academic restructuring proposals that had been approved by the faculty over the past year, according to Provost Marty Krauss.The Board gave the final approval to both the Business major and the Justice Brandeis Semester, which the faculty had previously approved. The Trustees also approved the Film Studies major, which the faculty approved last semester.

In addition, the Board approved a Master of Arts in Computer Science and Information Technology Entrepreneurship, a Master of Arts in Philosophy, a Master of Arts in Greek and Roman Studies, the Jewish Studies B.A./Hornstein M.A. Degree and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management M.P.P. and M.B.A. dual degree.

The idea behind the Justice Brandeis Semester is to offer more experiential learning opportunities on- campus during the summer and off-campus learning opportunities during the fall or spring.

The JBS aims to attract more students and increase the University's enrollment without increasing the capacity of residence halls, faculty and administrators have said.

The University also hopes to attract more students by offering a new program in the form of the Business major.

Faculty proposed the Film major in response to increased student interest in the field and because of the proliferation of digital media, they said last semester.

Four members of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committees presented their work so far to the Board of Trustees.

Chair of the subcommittee on Admissions and Recruiting Prof. Steven Burg (POL) presented the University's plans to change admissions literature and the admissions' Web site.

Prof. Ben Gomes-Casseres (IBS) presented the new business major.

Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI) presented the Justice Brandeis Semester.

Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) from the Subcommittee on University Degree Requirements and Advising spoke about possible changes to the general education requirements.

The University plans to present the final Curriculum and Academic Restructuring committee proposals to the Board in May, Krauss said.

Krauss said, "We had been telling [the Board] that we were working on a plan that would both increase the number of students on the campus and that would make some changes in the curriculum both to attract more students but also to manage within a tighter budget, so this board meeting was spent describing to them where we are with respect to both of those goals."

"[The trustees] were very supportive, they were very excited, they could tell that we as a faculty were excited about this opportunity to innovate, and it would indeed help [Brandeis] as an institution be another tool to solve some of these problems that have arisen," Hickey said.

Board members were "inspired" by the presentation, Krauss said. "One Board member said 'I might apply to come back to Brandeis'." She said she thought "the Board is solidly behind the feverish planning that the University has been undergoing.