The Brandeis 2020 Committee, an expanded version of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee, will examine which academic programs constitute the University's strengths and which are of lesser importance or inferior quality, Board of Trustees member Meyer Koplow '72 and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said last Wednesday after a special faculty meeting. These programs would be considered for termination as part of the resolution of the University's long-term budget challenges, said Koplow and Jaffe. "To be concrete, what we're talking about are academic programs that would be phased out," Jaffe said. "That might not save money for a while, but eventually, as faculty do retire and departments are reconfigured, that means that that's a need in the curriculum that will not have to be met." Both he and Koplow emphasized that a student pursuing a major chosen for elimination would still be able to complete the degree. Koplow said he told faculty at the meeting that cuts to the academy would be just one of many components to solving the budget challenge "and quite possibly the smallest of them."

Jaffe explained that the new committee's mission differed significantly from that of the CARS committee formed last winter to respond to the University's plan to increase the undergraduate student body by 12 percent and decrease the Arts and Sciences faculty by 10 percent. He said that a key factor in reconsidering the University's budget challenge was the realization that the amount of time it would take to implement the faculty reduction through attrition was greater than expected.

The CARS report stated that "if a point came where non-trivial costs were necessary to maintain [Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Language and Linguistics, Internet Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies and History of Ideas], we would recommend that their termination be seriously considered."

The committee, chaired by Jaffe, is composed of members of the original CARS committee, the Dean's Curriculum Committee, the faculty representatives to the Board of Trustees and the chair of the Faculty Budget Committee. The committee is expected to report to the Board of Trustees March 23.

Koplow added that the Board and the University were looking at other ways to increase revenue. Koplow stated that the International Business School and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management would play one important role in this regard and that the Board of Trustees would need to do a better job at raising unrestricted funds for the University's general budget. He added he had told faculty that "some of the solution will come from realizing value ultimately from some of the art at the Rose [Art Museum]".

According to the Faculty Handbook, on the occasion of proposals to discontinue or establish academic programs or departments, "the Provost will consult with the Academic Deans, the chairs of relevant existing departments and School Councils, as well as with the Council of the Faculty Senate to establish an appropriate deliberative process." The handbook requires faculty approval for the establishment of undergraduate academic programs.

Last year, the CARS committee had initially proposed reorganizing the departments of African and Afro-American Studies, Classical Studies and American Studies into interdepartmental programs, a plan that met with faculty and student criticism.

"It seems like they've put together a committee which is diverse, fairly representative; it's not an elected one, which would have been better . [since] it's supposed to be the faculty's view of what should be cut," Prof. Leonard Muellner (CLAS) said. "I hope they come up with some reasonable ways of dealing with the agenda that the Board of Trustees has set for them. . We're hopeful that we've justified our existence enough times so that we're not on the chopping block."

He noted that it was the third time the University faced such cuts. In 2004 and 2005, Jaffe had proposed to eliminate the Music Composition graduate program, the Linguistics major and the teaching of ancient Greek, as well as a reduction in the number of faculty in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Physics departments.

"One thing that does concern me is that the dean at the faculty meeting said that one of the most important criteria he was going to use is what the students want," Muellner said. "And I think that's a way of not letting the faculty make decisions on the basis of what they think is important for education. . It's important to not make the students responsible for cuts."

He said he was concerned about how cuts would affect the University's broader mission. "If you start narrowing it down, you're reducing the quality and defeating the purpose of having a thing called a university."

American Studies Chair Prof. Joyce Antler called it "unprecedented" for a Trustee to address faculty directly... Faculty she said "listened respectfully, and there's already some anxiety that's been setting in along with a positive attitude that yes we can." She noted that there were no American Studies or Classical Studies faculty on the committee. The AMST department already considered itself a model for the Board of Trustees' goals of resource-sharing collaboration.

"[While] undoubtedly cuts are painful and no one wants them, if we need to go through cuts today to ensure long-term financial security and to continue to make Brandeis one of the top universities in the world, then I cautiously commit to being a part of the committee and doing the best that I can," committee member Jason Gray '10, a former Student Union president, said.

One proposal the administration and Faculty Senate Council first offered at the start of the financial crisis last year envisioned replacing the currently offered 43 majors and 47 minors offered to undergraduates with a much smaller number of interdisciplinary meta-majors, a suggestion rejected by many faculty at a subsequent faculty meeting. Among faculty at this January's retreat, Jaffe said, "There actually was some resurrection ... of the meta-major idea and related ideas" that the committee might consider.

With regard to graduate programs, Jaffe said the number and academic quality of applicants, student satisfaction with programs, subsequent job placement and national rankings could be among factors under consideration. On the undergraduate level, the committee could look at enrollment, "the importance of a program from a recruitment perspective" and how crucial a program is to the Brandeis education.

Koplow stressed that Brandeis needed to build on its strengths. "What we do have to do is make sure that everything that should be part of a first-class liberal arts college is here and that the areas in which we excel are strengthened and fostered, and if that means we can't spend money on programs where we don't do as well, that's what it means," he said. Asked which areas were under consideration, he stressed that those decisions," have to come from the academy." According to the Dec. 3 Faculty Senate minutes, Koplow had suggested that "a major pillar of this university is the mission of social justice, and this could be pushed more to the forefront and integrated into many of the programs."

"Last spring the discussion in the faculty after the CARS recommendations was should we accept those recommendations or not. And there was a lot of sentiment that the answer is we should not," Jaffe said. "[Now] the board has essentially told us that we need to make reductions in our academic commitments, so I certainly anticipate that there will be a lot of opposition, but at the end of day, we're in a different place. We're not being given the option of doing nothing," he said.