Proposed changes to the University residency requirement of seven semesters will be postponed following the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee's withdrawal of Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe's original proposal to increase the current requirement to eight semesters, according to University Registrar Mark Hewitt.Instead, Jaffe is working with Hewitt to concentrate on clarifying the language of the requirement and adjusting it to incorporate the Justice Brandeis Semester, according to Hewitt.

Jaffe and Vice President of Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy decided to postpone any major changes to the residency requirement on the recommendation of Hewitt and Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva, wrote Hewitt in an e-mail to the Justice.

Hewitt wrote that he and Villanueva recommended that the administration refrain from making major changes to the requirement this year in order to provide more time for researching ideas for the proposal to solve the problem that degree acceleration poses for the budget.

"These requirements are so basic to the degree program that changes can have a broad impact on students, and we felt that we needed more time to be able to adequately assess the effects of any [major] changes and to have more time to come up with different approaches that might mitigate the impact on students," Hewitt wrote.

The residency requirement is the number of semesters a student must complete on campus.

The administration originally proposed to increase the current requirement from seven to eight semesters in an effort to address the problem of revenue loss that occurs when seniors graduate in December, Jaffe explained to the?Justice in March.

However, Jaffe announced at the faculty meeting March 19 that the proposal was withdrawn due to faculty concerns that it would disadvantage students who need to graduate early for financial reasons.

At the April 2 faculty meeting, Jaffe had announced that he was working with Eddy on a new proposal that took into account these concerns. He had hoped to be able to present the new proposal implementing major changes to the requirement April 23.

Howver, Hewitt wrote that the decision to postpone any major changes occurred was made after Jaffe made the announcement at the faculty meeting.

Hewitt wrote that the JBS, which requires students to participate in experiential learning, will be treated similarly to study abroad.

"Students who wish to study abroad for two semesters, or take two JBS, or one of each are required to complete eight total semesters. Students who want to graduate in seven semesters can only have one semester of either study abroad or Justice Brandeis," Hewitt wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Hewitt wrote that he and Jaffe are proposing to replace the term "academic residency" in the current requirement with "credits required for graduation" and "semesters required for graduation." Hewitt wrote that they are proposing to change this wording because, judging from listserv discussions, faculty and students find the current wording confusing.

"People get hung up on the contradiction of calling [this requirement] residency when some of the semesters/credits that satisfy it are actually spent off-campus (e.g., study abroad)," Hewitt wrote.

Hewitt added that he and Jaffe are also proposing to eliminate the chart of options in the current proposal and change the wording of "non-resident numeric credit" to "external credit sources" and change "non-resident credit for purpose" to "external exams/courses for purpose."

Jaffe told the Justice that the changes that he and Hewitt are recommending to the current residency requirement are minor. "This is the kind of thing that we do all the time, fiddling with how things are worded in the bulletin," he said.

When asked if the administration had come up with any major changes to the current proposal, Hewitt wrote that it would be "premature to mention the ideas that have been proposed at this stage."

Jaffe also said that Eddy and he are still working on their proposal to implement major changes to the requirement but declined to provide specifics. "Nothing's going to happen anytime soon," he said.

Jaffe and Hewitt will propose the minor changes to the current residency requirement to the UCC April 22, Hewitt wrote.