An expanded Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee called the Brandeis 2020 committee, to be appointed by University Provost Marty Krauss, will examine which academic programs constitute the University's strengths and which are of lesser importance or inferior quality, Board of Trustees member Meyer Koplow '72 and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said yesterday after a special faculty meeting. According to Koplow and Jaffe, these programs would be considered for termination as part of the resolution of the University's long-term budget challenges.
"To be concrete, what we're talking about are academic programs that would be phased out," Jaffe said. "That might not save money for a while, but eventually, as faculty do retire and departments are reconfigured, that means that that's a need in the curriculum that will not have to be met." Both he and Koplow emphasized that a student pursuing a major chosen for elimination would still be able to complete the degree. Koplow said he told faculty at yesterday's meeting that cuts to the academy would be just one of many components to solving the budget challenge "and quite possibly the smallest of them."


He added that the Board and the University were looking at other ways to increase revenue. Koplow stated that the International Business School and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management would play one important role in this regard and that the Board of Trustees would need to do a better job at raising unrestricted funds for the University's general budget. He added he had told faculty that "some of the solution will come from realizing value ultimately from some of the art at the Rose [Art Museum]".

According to an e-mail this Monday from Krauss, the committee will be composed of members of the original CARS committee, the Dean's Curriculum Committee, the faculty representatives to the Board of Trustees and the chair of the Faculty Budget Committee. Former Student Union President Jason Gray '10, a member of the original CARS committee, attended Wednesday's meeting and will sit on the new committee. The committee is expected to report to the Board of Trustees March 23.

Jaffe explained that the new committee's mission differed significantly from that of the CARS committee formed last winter to respond to the University's plan to increase the undergraduate student body by 12 percent and decrease the Arts and Sciences faculty by 10 percent. He said that a key factor in reconsidering the University's budget challenge was the realization that the amount of time it would take to implement the faculty reduction through attrition was greater than expected. Participants at a Jan. 12 faculty retreat had recommended the creation of the new committee.

"It's not just that we're going to do CARS again but do more of it," Jaffe said, "The framework in which we working on last year was very explicitly a five-year budget planning horizon, and there were a number of changes that the CARS committee considered recommending and decided not to because we couldn't make the case that in the five-year budget period it would save significant money."

Jaffe and Koplow emphasized that this committee was not about short-term gains. "The question we've been asked [now] is are there academic commitments that we have in the form of ... degrees that we offer ... that are not as important as others or as high quality as others, which if [phased out] in the long run would make it easier for Brandeis to balance its resources and its commitments, and that's a different question from will it save any money in the next five years," Jaffe said. "I made it very clear: I didn't expect the kinds of things we were talking about would save any money in 2011 or 2012," Koplow added.

Koplow, chair of the Trustees Budget and Finance Committee, said he emphasized to faculty the crucial need to address the institution's budget shortfall of $25 million, with deferred maintenance one large factor. He said that when the University decides to postpone renovating buildings, for example, "that doesn't mean that the cost of it goes away or that it isn't part of our budget shortfall."

The measures enacted in response to the budget gap are not compatible with the University's ideals, he stated. "The fact is that the University has lived with this kind of shortfall since its creation, and we just shouldn't be living on the edge," he said. "It's not 'Brandeis' to be laying off employees; it's not 'Brandeis' to be asking people to give up their retirement contributions. ... Frankly it's not 'Brandeis' to be asking students to wait in line because we've cut cashiers at the food services. That's not who we are, and we have to fix it."

Koplow stressed that Brandeis needed to build on its strengths. "What we do have to do is make sure that everything that should be part of a first-class liberal arts college is here and that the areas in which we excel are strengthened and fostered, and if that means we can't spend money on programs where we don't do as well, that's what it means," he said. He said he did not envision across-the-board cuts but rather the termination of specific programs. Asked which areas were under consideration, he stressed that "the Board is not in a position to make those decisions and shouldn't be making those decisions. They have to come from the academy." According to the Dec. 3 Faculty Senate minutes, Koplow had suggested that "a major pillar of this university is the mission of social justice, and this could be pushed more to the forefront and integrated into many of the programs."


In appealing directly to the administration and faculty through Koplow, Jaffe stated that the Board was not leaving the University with any other options. "Last spring the discussion in the faculty after the CARS recommendations was should we accept those recommendations or not. And there was a lot of sentiment that the answer is we should not," Jaffe said. "[Now] the board has essentially told us that we need to make reductions in our academic commitments, so I certainly anticipate that there will be a lot of opposition, ... but at the end of day, we're in a different place. We're not being given the option of doing nothing."

One proposal the administration and Faculty Senate Council first offered at the start of the financial crisis last year envisioned replacing the currently offered 43 majors and 47 minors offered to undergraduates with a much smaller number of interdisciplinary meta-majors, a suggestion rejected by many faculty at a subsequent faculty meeting. Among faculty at this January's retreat, Jaffe said, "there actually was some resurrection ... of the meta-major idea and related ideas" that the committee might consider.

"I thought [Koplow] presented a compelling case. I thought the faculty received it very well," Gray said. "[While] undoubtedly cuts are painful and no one wants them, if we need to go through cuts today to ensure long-term financial security and to continue to make Brandeis one of the top universities in the world, then I cautiously commit to being a part of the committee and doing the best that I can."

--Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.