The Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee recently recommended that the Classical Studies department, an integral part of the academic fabric of our liberal arts University, be reorganized into an interdepartmental program. In its report, the committee praised the department for the "heroic" and "sterling contributions" of its faculty and students to the University. Although "the committee recognizes the irony" of its recommendation, it suggests that Classics be converted to an interdepartmental program, reducing the faculty from four to three. CARS believes that because of the small size of our department, our "organizational structure is not optimal."On the contrary, our faculty and students arrange a wide array of events for the Brandeis community including a popular film series, two prestigious lecture programs that attract world-renowned classicists, undergraduate academic fellowships for majors and minors and an internship program through the Classical Artifact Research Center.

In the CARS student forum on Wednesday, representatives of the committee cited "departmental barriers" as an impetus for our reassignment as an interdepartmental program. We firmly believe these barriers do not exist in Classics. Every semester, the Classics department crafts courses that link diverse disciplines including but not limited to Physics, Anthropology, History, Fine Arts, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Theater Arts.

The committee also conceded that the University would not save much from this change; rather, the private donations that help fund our dynamic lecture programs, undergraduate fellowships and the CLARC could be significantly diminished or withdrawn due to the lack of a departmental status. In fact the University could potentially lose money due to a retraction of alumni donations to the Classics department.

Furthermore, our professors- who many members of the Brandeis community know personally-have fostered an inviting and intellectually engaging community worth maintaining as a department. Admittedly, we are a small department, retaining only four full-time professors; however, we are on par with the national average of 3.5 professors in Classical Studies departments. If you know a Classics student, you probably are familiar with our unique atmosphere of scholarship, warmth and-indeed-nerdiness.

We welcome everyone with an enthusiasm for classical subject matter to come enjoy our events or a course with Profs. Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow, Leonard Muellner, Cheryl Walker or Patricia Johnston. We ask that the Brandeis administration, faculty, and students help us to preserve the prestige of our small department so that we may continue to offer the vibrant environment that both our faculty and students have created. Valete Omnes!

Editor's Note: Alissa Thomas '11, Alex Smith '09 and Dianne Ma '09 are Classics majors.