The Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee has recommended converting the African and Afro-American Studies, American Studies and Classical Studies departments into interdepartmental programs; cutting 10 percent of the faculty from all departments over the next five years; and reducing the size of most Ph.D. programs as part of its final report that was released yesterday afternoon. The committee's report also recommends reducing the number of classes in which fewer than eight students are enrolled in order to hold classes in which students show more interest. As a consequence of these changes, the committee recommends that faculty teach a greater variety of courses over a three-year period, the CARS committee members said in an interview with the Justice. The committee also recommends that departments offer more courses that appeal to more diverse student interests.

"The CARS committee concluded that we don't want to shrink the curriculum," Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, the chair of the committee, said. "We want to continue doing what we're doing. . We just want to do it in a different way."

The CARS committee will present its proposals to the faculty Thursday, before Provost Marty Krauss makes her initial recommendations on the proposals May 4. After another faculty meeting on May 7, Krauss will release her final decisions by May 13.

The committee was created after faculty voted at a Jan. 22 special faculty meeting. Its purpose was to consider a reduction in the size of the faculty, an increase in undergraduate enrollment and establishment of an expanded summer session, as well as changes to existing departments and programs as a response to financial projections, according to the attendees at the meeting.

In an interview with the Justice, committee members preliminarily estimated that the recommendations could save about $5 million.

Prof. Steven Burg (POL), a member of the committee, explained that AAAS, AMST and Classics were chosen to be converted into interdisciplinary programs because they "are essentially interdisciplinary in character" and are among the smaller departments in terms of faculty. "We think that there are faculty whose existing research and teaching agendas match up very nicely with, for example AAAS, but because they're in different departments . there's an artificial administrative barrier which we wish to remove," Burg said.

Burg emphasized, "The faculty in AAAS will have to make decisions about where they wish to affiliate in terms of departmental affiliation, but they'll still be a program." More courses will be cross-listed, and students will have more courses to choose from, Burg explained.

Burg added that the committee believed the changes could strengthen both the established departments and the new interdepartmental programs by making use of the expertise of the faculty, who will be able to contribute in related academic fields.

Another CARS member, Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI), said that there is an advantage to increasing the interactions between different departments by making them more interdisciplinary. Hickey explained that small departments put extra burden on faculty because the rotation of the chair goes through fewer people.

The committee informed AAAS and Classics on Friday and AMST on Monday, committee members said. They had sought input from various departments throughout their deliberations and also received 107 responses to a faculty survey.

The committee also provided a model for the University's previously announced goal to reduce the faculty by 10 percent, about 30 positions, over the next five years through departures or retirements.

"We looked at each department and decided how much we can shrink it and still preserve the curriculum," Hickey said. "Everyone's going to be unhappy; all these target sizes are smaller."

Burg emphasized that Brandeis remained fully committed to the tenure track system. "We are not going to use the tenure process to achieve [the goal of shrinking departments]," he said. In order to be a quality insitution, "You must constantly reinvigorate your faculty with new Ph.D.s and assistant professors," Burg said.

The report also noted that while the committee considered closing Ph.D. programs, it concluded that the programs were too valuable as undergraduate teaching resources and too integral to the University's "scholarship mission" to give up.

"It's not clear to me that Brandeis would have as distinguished a faculty as it does have . if we didn't have these Ph.D. programs," Burg said.

The report estimates that the University could save about $1.8 million by cutting the size of Ph.D. programs. "This report, to some extent, squeezes the graduate school in order to preserve the core undergraduate mission of Brandeis," Jaffe said.

The report calls for a reduction of about 20 percent in the number of Ph.D. students funded by University stipends.

The committee proposed enforcing the cancellation of classes with fewer than eight students enrolled after preregistration, or if it is not canceled, it shall not count as a faculty member's teaching load.

The committee is also strongly encouraging faculty to teach a greater variety of courses over the same three-year timeline. Assuming that a faculty member teaches four courses over three years, "it is now the case that those 12 courses would really be the same four three times; we're trying within the 12 to have six different courses," Burg said. Faculty from existing interdisciplinary departments will need to choose to affiliate with other departments, members explained.

The report recommends a review of institutes and centers, the creation of interdisciplinary major in the creative arts and the abolishment of four-year BA/MA programs. The report also suggests closing interdisciplinary programs such as Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Language and Linguistics; Peace Conflict and Coexistence Studies; History of Ideas and; Internet Studies if financial difficulties arise.

"We did everything we felt was necessary to preserve the quality of the liberal arts college," Burg said.

-Mike Prada, Hannah Kirsch and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting