The Justice

CORRECTION APPENDED SEE BOTTOM

A subcommittee of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering Committee is proposing a new graduation requirement in the form of semester-long experiential learning programs both on and off campus in order to increase the undergraduate student body, while another subcommittee is proposing a Business major to attract more applicants.

In addition, a separate group of faculty is proposing a major in Communications, Media and Society in order to attract more applicants.

All proposals are intended to increase revenue from tuition-paying students, faculty members said.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe posted all three proposals on a special Brandeis Web site dedicated to the curricular changes in advance of an open forum that will be held Wednesday in order to gain feedback on the proposals and to make further changes. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will consider the proposals Thursday, several faculty members said.

The subcommittee on a possible summer semester and experiential learning is proposing a new graduation requirement, the "Brandeis Semester," to be completed by 800 to 1,000 students a year either during the summer, fall or spring after a student's first year. The new program would apply to incoming students entering in the fall of 2010, according to the proposal.

Students could fulfill the Brandeis Semester requirement through programs such as an Environmental Field Semester, expanded work in a lab over the summer, a Brandeis Summer Arts Festival, Summer Study Abroad opportunities, an internship away from Brandeis during the fall or spring or intensive summer language study, according to the committee's proposal.

"I would really have appreciated the option of doing the summer research with courses specifically geared toward people interested in scientific research," Lydia Flier '11, a student representative on the committee, said.

Increasing the student body, by having more students live off campus instead of having a Brandeis Semester would be difficult because of a shortage of affordable housing in Waltham, Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI), chair of the subcommittee, said. Additionally, some Waltham neighborhoods might be less used to college students. The goal is to maintain the number of on-campus beds at 2,850 while the undergraduate student body increases from 3,200 to 3,700 over five years, according to the proposal.

According to the committee's proposal, the committee members estimate that between $500,000 and $700,000 may be needed for increased staffing in the Hiatt Career Center and the Study Abroad Office. "If we were going to do this, it would definitely require an investment," Hickey said.

The committee's proposal also states that students would take the equivalent of three courses as part of their Brandeis Semester, either on campus or through online courses, which is equal to 12 course credits instead of a full semester of 16 credits. Therefore, according to the proposal, students would only have to pay 75 percent of full tuition during either the fall or spring semester.

Hickey explained that requiring just a summer semester would be difficult because some students cannot apply their federal and state financial aid to a third consecutive semester. To address this problem for students who choose a summer program, the proposal suggests that midyear students could complete their Brandeis Semester during their first summer or that juniors could spend their last summer as a Brandeis Semester with the intention of graduating early. The proposal also suggests that the University consider opportunities for students to take a semester off and possibly complete a not-for-credit paid internship after a summer Brandeis Semester.

At the Feb.12 Academic Open Forum, Prof. Sasha Nelson (BIOL), a member of the subcommittee, explained how adopting a mandatory summer session with a quarter system such as Dartmouth College's would be difficult because it "would take a large amount of faculty resources out of the fall and spring" in order to offer enough courses in the summer.

The members of the Business major subcommittee note that their proposal has the potential to attract more students to Brandeis. According to the proposal, 17 percent of college applicants nationwide express interest in a Business major, while only five percent of admitted Brandeis students do, signifying untapped interest in business.

Students will need to take classes in both the areas of Business Administration and Business and Society. "[At other schools] the student ends up leaving after four years having had half their degree in business. In our case, the student leaves Brandeis and still has two-thirds of their degree outside of business," Prof. Ben Gomes-Casseres (IBS), chair of the subcommittee, said.

According to the proposal, the committee was not asked to estimate the program's costs or revenues. Gomes-Casseres said that more sections would likely be necessary for core courses but that the program would mainly build on existing offerings. According to an online student survey conducted by students, 52.3 percent of Brandeis Business minors expressed interest in the idea of a Business major. Adam Eisenberg '09, student representative to the Subcommittee, noted that "one of the things that a lot of employers look for is students who have business skills."

In another effort to attract more students, the preliminary draft proposal regarding a Communications, Media and Society major submitted to the Academic Restructuring Steering Committee by five faculty members from American Studies, Journalism, Anthropology and Sociology notes that "courses of study that consider how, why and to what end we communicate with one another have become increasingly popular." According to their proposal, journalism is the third most popular minor after Business and Legal Studies and a number of students are completing Independent Interdisciplinary Majors in the area. "Our thought is, let's formally recognize what is already happening at Brandeis," Prof. Maura Jane Farrelly (AMST), director of the Journalism program, said.

The major would build on a large number of already-existing courses at Brandeis, according to the proposal. "What we are probably going to propose is that the existing Internet Studies minor program and the existing Journalism minor program be subsumed into this major," Farrelly said. In order to incorporate a Liberal Arts aspect to the program, the proposal suggests that students be required or encouraged to double-major or minor in another Liberal Arts discipline. The faculty members suggested that students could concentrate in three different tracks in Journalism: Technology, Commun-ication and Society as well as Politics, Commerce and Culture.

Correction: The headline and first sentence originally abbreviated CARS as the "Committee on Academic Restructuring." It is actually the "Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering Committee."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools