Spring Break
Committee recommends USEM be optional
by Jillian Wagner
News Editor
News | 11/25/08
Posted online at 5:14 AM EST on 11/25/08
Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL), who has taught USEMs for the past 10 years, thinks that the USEM program "is a crucial part of being introduced to our University for first-year students. It's a very important experience for them to be in a small class with a professor, taking an interdisciplinary course that focuses on the basic introduction to humanistic inquiry."
It would be impossible to accomplish this if the USEMs were half-credit courses, von Mering said.
However, professors and administrators have mixed feelings about the consequences of making the program optional.
"I do think that some students for whom USEMs would be a good thing are going to not do it if it's optional, and that's too bad," Jaffe explained.
However, "A significant number of students have bad experiences in their USEM," Jaffe said. "Since we don't have to offer 53 of them, we can make sure that all the ones we offer are really good and that the students who are in them will be there because they want to be," he said.
Fraleigh explained that qualities of the USEM program, such as the opportunity to work closely with professors and to learn some of the basic skills that a University education seeks to address, "will remain attractive to students and will be forces that will keep the USEM program going."
"I would imagine that even if the USEM is made optional, there will be students who are interested in taking the classes and faculty who will be interested in offering them," Fraleigh said.
Jaffe said first-year advisers will be involved in ensuring that the benefits of taking a USEM are explained to incoming students.
"We are all hoping that this is a temporary measure that will eventually be turned back, and we do feel strongly that USEM is an important core part of what Brandeis does as a liberal arts school," von Mering said.
It would be impossible to accomplish this if the USEMs were half-credit courses, von Mering said.
However, professors and administrators have mixed feelings about the consequences of making the program optional.
"I do think that some students for whom USEMs would be a good thing are going to not do it if it's optional, and that's too bad," Jaffe explained.
However, "A significant number of students have bad experiences in their USEM," Jaffe said. "Since we don't have to offer 53 of them, we can make sure that all the ones we offer are really good and that the students who are in them will be there because they want to be," he said.
Fraleigh explained that qualities of the USEM program, such as the opportunity to work closely with professors and to learn some of the basic skills that a University education seeks to address, "will remain attractive to students and will be forces that will keep the USEM program going."
"I would imagine that even if the USEM is made optional, there will be students who are interested in taking the classes and faculty who will be interested in offering them," Fraleigh said.
Jaffe said first-year advisers will be involved in ensuring that the benefits of taking a USEM are explained to incoming students.
"We are all hoping that this is a temporary measure that will eventually be turned back, and we do feel strongly that USEM is an important core part of what Brandeis does as a liberal arts school," von Mering said.
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