Nine Justice Brandeis Semester programs for the summer of 2010 have been conditionally approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee pending the approval of the curriculum committee in its specific department or program, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. In his e-mail, Jaffe wrote that he is in the process of reviewing the programs with a focus on budget and logistics and that he hopes to complete this review by the end of the week.

JBS Manager Alyssa Grinberg wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that students in the JBS programs will "explore a thematic topic through inquiry-based courses linked to real-world experiential opportunities such as internships, field-based research, creative work or community-engaged learning."

Prof. Timothy Hickey (COSI), who proposed the "Web Services, Mobile Apps, and Cloud Computing" JBS, said that the three new courses which are a part of his JBS proposal were still pending approval by the Computer Science curriculum committee and the Science Council.

He said that the Computer Science department has three categories of electives and that the curriculum committee still needs to figure out what categories the three new courses fall into and what implications this has for other courses within the department.

Both Hickey and Prof. Laura Goldin (ENVS), who is spearheading the "Environmental Health and Justice" JBS program, said that they have already spoken to students who were interested in the JBS programs they had proposed.

According to Jaffe, the other conditionally approved programs are "Beacon Hill Summer," proposed by Profs. Eileen McNamara (JOUR) and Maura Jane Farrelly (AMST); "Collaborative Theater and the Theatrical Essay," proposed by Prof. Adrianne Krstansky (THA); "Conflict Resolution and Ethics in the Real World," proposed by Prof. Richard Gaskins (LGLS) and Student Union President Andy Hogan '11; "Ethnographic Fieldwork," proposed by Prof. Elizabeth Ferry (ANTH); "Health and Society Field Semester," proposed by Prof. Peter Conrad (SOC); "Pathologies of Criminal Law: Restoring Justice," proposed by Profs. Richard Gaskins (AMST) and Melissa Stimell (LGLS); and "Understanding the American Jewish Community" proposed by Prof. Len Saxe (Heller).

Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong previously stated that the JBS committee would run a JBS program with as few as eight students but that some programs could accommodate as many as 25 students.

Grinberg said that the deadlines for student applications to the summer 2010 JBS programs would be Jan. 29 for early decision and March 15 for regular decision. Grinberg said that she expects the application for the JBS programs to be similar to that of the Study Abroad program at Brandeis.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Grinberg wrote that "[the JBS committee] is currently compiling answers to frequently asked questions addressing topics such as financial aid, housing, and academic credit. In the coming months the JBS website will be frequently updated so students should keep checking back to learn more."

Grinberg said that her experience working at the International Honors Program, a program that gives student the opportunity to "examine a thematic topic in multiple countries in the semester or academic year, exploring how people in different countries create varied solutions to the common problems they face," according to its Web site, had prepared her for the position of JBS manager because, while she was employed at IHP, she had created new systems for the program during an internal review.

"For instance, we developed a new admissions process and changed the way we administered billing and academic credit in consultation with IHP's new affiliate, World Learning and SIT Study Abroad," she wrote in her e-mail.



- Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting