Spring Break
Most of CARS final report endorsed by the provost
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 5/19/09
Posted online at 12:30 AM EST on 5/19/09
Provost Marty Krauss decided May 7 to support most of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee's final recommendations, concluding that the University should maintain African and Afro-American Studies, Classical Studies and American Studies as departments while increasing interdepartmental collaboration among all academic programs.
The proposed recommendations will serve as a new basis for the Brandeis curriculum as the University seeks to decrease its faculty by 10 percent, primarily through departures or retirements if possible, over five years in order to save $5 million from the School of Arts and Sciences faculty budget. According to Krauss, the University is developing a voluntary retirement plan that would contribute to the reduction of faculty.
The CARS committee originally recommended in its initial report released to the Brandeis community April 20 that those three departments be turned into interdepartmental programs so that faculty from other departments could make up for faculty reductions. Many students protested, and faculty members voiced their objections to the proposals at the April 23 faculty meeting in conjunction with a faculty resolution.
"The logic of reorganizing those departments as programs was that it would make it easier to share the faculty resources across other departments in those programs," Dean of Arts and Sciences and chair of the CARS committee Adam Jaffe said. "The new approach is that everybody is going to be doing that, so in theory, [maintaining the departments] shouldn't matter," he added.
On May 4, the CARS committee also published a supplemental report in response to feedback from the community that recommended maintaining AAAS and Classics as departments and provided three options for the future of AMST. The report suggested that AMST should either become an interdisciplinary program starting next year, reorganize into an interdepartmental program over five years or remain as a department but increase collaboration with other departments.
The proposed recommendations will serve as a new basis for the Brandeis curriculum as the University seeks to decrease its faculty by 10 percent, primarily through departures or retirements if possible, over five years in order to save $5 million from the School of Arts and Sciences faculty budget. According to Krauss, the University is developing a voluntary retirement plan that would contribute to the reduction of faculty.
The CARS committee originally recommended in its initial report released to the Brandeis community April 20 that those three departments be turned into interdepartmental programs so that faculty from other departments could make up for faculty reductions. Many students protested, and faculty members voiced their objections to the proposals at the April 23 faculty meeting in conjunction with a faculty resolution.
"The logic of reorganizing those departments as programs was that it would make it easier to share the faculty resources across other departments in those programs," Dean of Arts and Sciences and chair of the CARS committee Adam Jaffe said. "The new approach is that everybody is going to be doing that, so in theory, [maintaining the departments] shouldn't matter," he added.
On May 4, the CARS committee also published a supplemental report in response to feedback from the community that recommended maintaining AAAS and Classics as departments and provided three options for the future of AMST. The report suggested that AMST should either become an interdisciplinary program starting next year, reorganize into an interdepartmental program over five years or remain as a department but increase collaboration with other departments.
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