A proposal to extensively restructure the USEM program by allowing discipline-specific classes, instituting a standardized Intensive Writing Seminar (IWS) and decreasing class size is currently under review by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, according to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe.The Undergraduate Curriculum-USEM Review Committee submitted the 12-page proposal for consideration by the UCC on Sept. 19. The Justice obtained a copy of this proposal.

The committee's members say the current system puts a strain on faculty, limits student choices and is ineffective in teaching students academic writing.

Their proposal calls for widespread reform of the program, including allowing professors to offer USEMs that could count toward students' majors, as well as cutting class sizes from 18 to 15, resulting in about 10 additional sections per year.

The committee, formed last spring, also recommended eliminating the University Writing Seminar program and replacing it with an Intensive Writing Seminar. The revised seminar would still be taught by graduate students, but would also focused on teaching writing practices standardized by training from University Writing Director Dawn Skorczewski. In the current classes, graduate students receive varying levels of standardized writing training.

First-year students currently choose between taking a USEM and a separate graduate student-taught UWS, or taking one USEM+W class, which combines both requirements into a three-hour-per-week seminar and a one-hour-per-week writing session taught by a graduate student. The committee's plan would eliminate the USEM+W option and replace UWSs with IWSs.

"I think the problem is we ask USEM to do too many different things, and it's very hard for one curricular mechanism to accomplish a whole bunch of different goals," Jaffe said. "When it works well, it works terrifically well. But in some cases, it doesn't work so well."

Jaffe said the UCC will need at least two meetings to decide how to advise professors, and any changes must be approved by a majority of the faculty at two consecutive faculty meetings. He said that any changes would take considerable time for approval.

Committee chair Prof. Gregory Freeze (HIST) said the current requirement that USEMs be interdisciplinary makes it hard to find an adequate number of professors to teach those classes, since most professors would prefer to teach within their field of expertise. He also said this results in the choice of USEMs being too narrow, and that students are often forced to choose a class only because it fits their schedule.

"The USEM has been generally successful in providing a small class, but not enough choice," Freeze said.

The proposed IWS class would strive for standardized writing instruction on a schoolwide basis, as graduate students teaching the classes would all take full instruction courses under Skorczewski.

"I believe students here at Brandeis deserve and need a coherent and consistent first-year writing course," Skorczewski said. She also said that while she believes professors at Brandeis are committed to teaching writing, she doesn't see a structure "that supports that faculty's commitment."

The writing component is especially important to Jaffe. "[I think we] don't do a good job teaching writing," he said. "And I think it's one of the most important obligations we have to our liberal arts students, is to assure that everyone who leaves Brandeis with a Brandeis degree knows how to write."

Not all professors feel the program needs restructuring. Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST), who teaches a USEM+W titled Anatomy and Gender: Early to Modern Times in conjunction with Marlyn Miller (GRAD) said the program has provided a great deal for her and her students.

"The USEM has been one of my most positive teaching experiences in my years at Brandeis," Kelikian said. "I believe students learn to write ... and I find it a very compelling course. I would like the system to remain in place."

Miller, who is responsible for the fourth hour of instruction, echoed agreement. "I think that in conjunction with the three hours that the professor does it works very well," she said.

Prof. Susan Lanser (ENG) conceded that faculty at Brandeis are often over-extended, but said she needed more information to have a position, and she would like students to take part in the conversation.

"I don't know a lot about what the problems [with USEM] are," she said. "I would like to hear from undergraduates about their experiences.