CORRECTION APPENDEDProvost Marty Krauss, chair of the Bold Ideas Group, and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Apfel, a member of the Administrative Resource Review Committee, discussed the progress of their respective committees at the Feb. 4 faculty meeting.

According to the charge listed on the Brandeis Web site, the Bold Ideas Group, which was formed last November, is responsible for formulating new programs that will ultimately "yield a steady-state positive net return of at least $2 million." Krauss listed the ideas the committee had discussed in a PowerPoint presentation at the faculty meeting.

The ideas included expanding relationships with corporations and University partners, seeking out new markets, developing both online and offline master's programs and expanding the Rabb School of Continuing Studies by reaching out to people from different geographical areas.

She also said that the committee had spoken about expanding high school programs.

Krauss emphasized in an e-mail to the Justice that all of these ideas were in the formative stages and none had been definitively decided upon.

She wrote that the committee's next meeting will be held Feb. 10 and that no timeline had been established to determine and implement these ideas

"We don't know exactly how many more meetings we'll have, but we are continuing to meet to discuss ideas," Krauss wrote.

The Administrative Resource Review Committee was established at a Sept. 3 faculty meeting with the charge of reviewing staffing trends, administrative practices and internal and comparative financial data.

Apfel said in an interview with the Justice that he is in the process of drafting the committee's final report, which he will present to University President Jehuda Reinharz upon Reinharz's return from India on Feb. 13, and that the committee will make a presentation to the Board of Trustees during its meeting in March.

In a Jan. 28 e-mail to the faculty, Krauss announced the formation of the Centers and Institutes Review Committee, which will analyze the centers harbored within Brandeis, a project the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee began last year. Prof. Susan Birren (BIOL), the chair of the committee, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the committee had not met yet. She did not respond to a follow-up question about when the first meeting would be held.

Apfel told those present at the faculty meeting that the committee had set up organizational charts and engaged in a staff complement analysis, a study that compares Brandeis staff to other institutions, and a compensation review of the staff and will work on a compensation review of the senior administration.

He explained in an e-mail to the Justice that a compensation review entails a comparison of Brandeis salaries to benchmark averages.

He also said that the committee was examining Library and Technology Services offerings with head of LTS Perry Hanson and was working on increasing efficiency and wants to conduct a space review to discern whether it is utilized efficiently.

"We're not considering outsourcing at this point in time," Apfel said at the meeting.

Apfel also said that Vice President of Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy was in the process of figuring out a method of gathering student input about maximizing efficiencies. He told the Justice that Eddy had spoken with Student Union President Andy Hogan '11, and that he had spoken with Heddy Ben-Atar '11, the student representative to the Board of Trustees, but that no concrete plans had been made to accomplish this objective.

Apfel also discussed Brandeis's involvement with the Advisory Board Company, explaining that the company had advised Brandeis on various fiscal matters like disciplining spending and optimizing facilities.

According to Apfel's presentation at the faculty meeting, the committee has discussed forming health care and energy initiatives with the Boston Consortium, a group of 11 universities in the Boston area, and was in the process of forming a procurement initiative with the consortium.

When asked to expand upon the ideas discussed at the faculty meeting, Apfel said he could not provide more details until the report was released. He said the time line of these activities was subject to the report as well.

Correction: The headline of this article originally misstated the name of the committee. It is the Bold Ideas Group, not the Big Ideas Group.