Provost Marty Krauss formed a special Faculty Advisory Committee to investigate options for increasing the financial efficiency of the School of Arts and Sciences as the University faces the economic crisis, according to an e-mail Krauss wrote to the faculty last Monday.According to the Provost's Web site, the goal of the committee is to "engage in a planning process to identify curricular and programmatic options in the School of Arts and Sciences . that could result in more efficient use of financial resources, while preserving the strengths of Brandeis University as a premiere liberal arts college within a robust research university." The committee will issue a report on its work by Dec. 15 to inform the Brandeis community about its conclusions.

The committee is chaired by Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe. Other committee members include Prof. Bulbul Chakraborty (PHYS), Prof. William Flesch (ENG), who is also the Faculty Senate Chair, Prof. Dian Fox (ROM), Prof. Karen Hansen (SOC), Prof. Charles McClendon (FA), Prof. Emeritus Kalpana White (BIOL) and Prof. Greg Freeze (HIST), who is the Dean of the Graduate School.

Krauss explained that she formed the committee because President Jehuda Reinharz stated at the October Faculty Meeting that faculty would be involved in making decisions regarding academic programs. She added that the Faculty Handbook, the book of rules regulating faculty and administration interaction, also requires that there be a "deliberative process" if changes are proposed to academic programs. The section in the Faculty Handbook refers to "proposals for the establishment or discontinuation of a school, department, undergraduate or graduate program, or other academic organizational unit such as a center or institute."

It also states that 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 section goes on to say that "The Provost, acting on the advice of the Academic Deans, and in consideration of the results of the established deliberative process, determines whether and how to proceed with a proposal."

Krauss noted that she selected those faculty because they represent all four schools of Arts and Sciences: humanities, sciences, social sciences and Fine Arts and Performing Arts and have each been teaching at Brandeis for a long time.

According to the Oct. 20 e-mail to faculty, the committee had its first meeting on Oct. 20. Four committee members said they were asked to keep committee discussions confidential. Krauss said the committee's discussions were private for the time being because that is how committees operate.

However, McClendon did say, "I'm heartened that the administration wants to talk with and get advice from faculty. [The administration] is not just going to hand down orders." He added that he thought the administration "had made a conscious attempt to make the [committee] as representative as they can."

Fox, another member of the committee, noted that her department's budget, like all the other department budgets, has been cut by 20 percent. She said that she was disappointed that a search for a new faculty member in her department had been suspended, but said she understood why that measure was necessary.

"I think [the administration] is doing what they need to do," she said. "Something like this has never happened, so it's hard to know what they should be doing differently." She said she hoped that the "measures that we take will be sufficient so that Brandeis won't [undergo] fundamental change in any way."

The committee, Fox said, "is trying to be proactive and examine things systematically and with voices from different parts of the campus rather than just reducing everything we can." She went on to say that the committee intends to "plan carefully so that we impact as few of the services that we offer as possible."

Jaffe, in his annual memo sent last Wednesday to faculty chairs asking them to submit their departments' budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year, outlined additional measures to be taken as a result of the University's budgetary problems.

Jaffe noted in the memo that the University must present a balanced budget to the Board of Trustees in March. "[This] will require further cuts to the Arts & Sciences budget, beyond those implemented for this year," he wrote. "Those cuts made this year that cannot be sustained for another year will have to be replaced with other cuts next year, and further cuts of significant magnitude have to be identified."

Compared to last year's memo that Jaffe sent to faculty chairs, this year's memo states that certain stricter policies will be put into effect for fiscal year 2009 in anticipation that less funding will be designated for adjuncts and temporary faculty in order to minimize layoffs and other cuts.

Jaffe wrote in the memo that faculty who are eligible for sabbaticals or other leaves of absence could be asked to postpone them unless they are awarded a fellowship from external resources or receive another award that cannot be postponed unless they are proposing to take a full year off at half-pay, or their absence would not result in the need for replacements.

While Jaffe wrote that language classes will continue to be capped at 20 students this year, caps for all other classes will be subject to his approval and the existence of "strong pedagogical justification."

Jaffe also stressed in the memo that faculty will be strongly encouraged to teach any necessary classes that they are qualified for. He wrote that "existing faculty should be used to the maximum feasible extent to fill curricular gaps." In the memo he points to a section in the Faculty Handbook that states that "The teaching preferences of individual faculty may be balanced by the needs of departments, programs and the University in the determination of teaching assignments."

In the memo, Jaffe encourages faculty who have colleagues who are reluctant to teach courses in spite of being qualified to teach them and to speak with him about ways to encourage the qualified faculty members to do so.