The administration is re-evaluating the new policy that made merit-based scholarships nontransferable to study abroad programs, according to Dean of Financial Services Peter Giumette.The change was instituted by the Division of Students and Enrollment and announced in an e-mail sent out Jan. 16.

Giumette said he was "surprised" when Student Union President Jason Gray '10 showed him and other administrators a few examples of merit scholar letters that included the clause, "These awards may be used for approved study abroad programs." Merit scholar letters for the Justice Brandeis Scholarship, Dean's Award and the Presidential Scholarship sent to members of the class of 2011-but not to the class of 2012-included this phrase, he said.

"Given the financial situation that we're in, it may be necessary for incoming classes, but it's unacceptable for students who were already recruited to this campus under the promise of portability," Gray said.

The other policy changes entail that students will be required to submit a preliminary study abroad form by Feb. 15, 2009 in order to become eligible to study abroad and that they must maintain a minimum grade-point average of 3.00 from the time they submit this preliminary form until they go abroad.

Tanya Kostochka '11 and Chris Lau '12, two Justice Brandeis Scholars, created a Facebook group and a petition against the University's decision regarding merit-based scholarships. Lau and Kostochka plan on delivering the petitions to University President Jehuda Reinharz Feb. 2 to try to get the decision reversed.

The petition speaks on behalf of merit scholar recipients, Brandeis faculty, International and Global Studies majors and Brandeis students in general. It reads, "We are frustrated that the new policy will curtail or even effectively eliminate our ability to follow our passions to study abroad because in many cases our estimated need-based aid simply does not accurately represent the aid we need."

"There is a common misperception on campus that the study abroad program makes money for Brandeis," Dean of Academic Services Kim Godsoe said. "It's always more cost-efficient for an institution to give scholarship money for students who are participating in the on-campus experience than it is to take that scholarship money and pay it to another institution," she said.

While a few of the questions on the preliminary application require students to provide some information about their study abroad program preferences, Assistant Dean of Academic Services and Director of Study Abroad J. Scott Van Der Meid explained that students wishing to study abroad in the spring semester are not bound by this information.

Also, Van Der Meid stressed the fact that students can amend the preliminary application up until Feb. 15. Students are also permitted to withdraw their application if they have already submitted it, even after the Feb. 15 deadline. If it is after Feb. 15 but before room selection actually takes place, they can enter the regular room selection process instead of the stand-alone room selection.

The administration considered several alternatives before deciding to make merit-based scholarships nontransferable, such as eliminating among the more expensive programs from the list of accepted programs. Van Der Meid explained that by doing so, however, the administration would have prevented students from studying in entire regions and countries, many of which are among the most popular destinations for Brandeis students.

"We did look at the varying cost of programs and where students tend to enroll in overseas programs," Van Der Meid clarified in an e-mail to the Justice. "To simply restrict the most expensive options would affect some majors over others in a disproportionate manner." These would have included more integrated programs, "such as internship programs in foreign language countries, programs that have independent study projects that students often come back and turn into a senior thesis and field-based programs," he wrote.

Another alternative the administration considered was making all financial aid nonportable, which would have changed Brandeis' entire study abroad financial system. Since the fall of 2004, Brandeis has used what it calls "home school tuition fees," meaning that the student will pay Brandeis tuition for the semester regardless of which program they choose.

Before the home school model was adopted, about 19 to 25 percent of the junior class studied abroad; this year, 45 percent studied abroad, Van Der Meid said.

Godsoe explained, "It seemed almost the antithesis of the social justice nature of the institution to grant educational opportunities on the basis of someone's ability to pay," if no financial aid was portable and the home school tuition fee system was abandoned.

"We're hoping that people will still study abroad," Godsoe said. "We feel that it's a wonderful educational experience for students. These are difficult decisions to make, but they reflect the economic times that we're in," she added.