At a graduate student open forum about the Brandeis 2020 Committee's proposals, master's students in Cultural Production, MFA students in Theater Design and Ph.D. students in Anthropology spoke to Provost Marty Krauss and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe against the closure of their programs, while undergraduate students also expressed some skepticism about the proposals at a separate forum. Both forums took place last Thursday.The Brandeis 2020 proposals, slated to save $3.8 million annually, include reorganizing the major in Hebrew Language and Literature and the minor in Yiddish and East European Jewish Culture as tracks within the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department, reorganizing the science departments into a new Division of Science to reduce overlapping research areas and terminating the Italian major.

As part of the Faculty Handbook-mandated deliberative process, the Faculty Senate, the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Council reviewed the proposals last Thursday. The Faculty Senate has called for a special faculty-only meeting to discuss the proposals this Thursday. Krauss plans to release her final decisions about the proposals next Monday, before the Board of Trustees meeting March 24.

Krauss addressed the timeline for coming up with and reviewing the proposals by March 8 in both forums. "I think that this truncated process has allowed for an intensity of communication, and I don't see much need to go beyond that Monday." She added that when Board of Trustees member Meyer Koplow '72, chair of the Board of Trustees Budget and Finance Committee, set the plan for the committee in motion, he initially wanted the proposals to be released by early March before the University negotiated with him to get one more week.

Both Krauss and Jaffe addressed the factors affecting the decision-making process regarding the Brandeis 2020 proposals. "We are a research university, ... but I think the [Board of Trustees] feels that we already are not in graduate education in every area, so one of the ways to rein in our ambitions should be to think about being somewhat less ambitious about what we do in graduate education," Jaffe said.

"We basically were told that if we didn't do a serious job, the Board would decide to just cut the budget in Arts and Sciences to something that would probably require far deeper, across-the-board, more damaging cuts," Krauss said.

"Frankly, one of my worries is that some on the board will feel like this wasn't enough," Krauss said.

Christopher Petrello, a first-year Cultural Production student, recalled at the forum that when he applied to graduate programs explaining his research interest, other universities directed him to their Art History or Anthropology departments.

When he wrote to Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH), director of the Cultural Production program at Brandeis, he said, "he not only said it would be a great fit, he seemed excited about it, which in turn made me excited to find other people who were interested in similar things."

He added that he did not understand why the University did not seem to see the new Mandel Center for the Humanities as a good fit for the Cultural Production program.

"I'm not going to say it doesn't fit. It many ways it would fit," Jaffe replied.

"The reason that the majority of us are here is because there is nothing else like this out there," Nicole March, another first-year Cultural Production student said. She added that she was under the impression that the program earned money for the University and that it was the program's expansion that would cause financial difficulties.

Jaffe said that beyond the cost of bringing in additional students, the program "is costing the University more than it is bringing in." He added that it would require more investment in the future to be a strong program. "Limiting the number of students does not control the cost of the program."

In a follow-up e-mail to the Justice, Jaffe wrote, "I did not say [the Cultural Production program] does not earn revenue. What I said was that in the judgment of the committee, it has costs comparable to that revenue. I am not going to share specific numbers in that regard."

In a follow-up e-mail to the Justice, Auslander wrote, "The CP program generates over $200,000 in revenue each year via tuition. Our understanding is that about $100,000 goes to help pay the salaries of faculty and administrators associated with the program, and to cover the expenses of the program. The remaining 100K goes to the Graduate School, and helps support Graduate School programs, such as stipends for PhD students."

Benjamin Williams, an MFA student in Theater Design, stated that the Theater students acknowledged that the current state of their program was unsustainable. If the design program were removed, "the MFA program in acting and the undergraduate program would have to be significantly restructured," he said.

"If this is going to take place, we firmly believe that the design program can be included within the overhaul of the department," Williams said. He continued to say that the program could work with the administration and the theater program to minimize production values of performances.

Carlos Martinez-Ruiz, an Anthropology Ph.D. student, said that the Anthropology program costs less than other programs.

Acknowledging that other programs are more expensive, Jaffe noted that "there is no serious research university that does not have a Ph.D. in English. There are serious research universities that don't offer Ph.D.s in anthropology."

Martinez-Ruiz went on to say that the committee had not taken into account the department's transition. "We chose Brandeis because it's a small, up-and-coming department. ... It is quite surprising to us that it is throwing that all of that effort and investment out of the window at the moment when the department is beginning to see the fruits that the University invested."

Jaffe stated that the committee did not apply the same criteria to all programs and that it was aware of the changes that had occurred.

Undergraduates also expressed concern about the University's public perception and how the proposals would concretely affect them at their open forum.

At the undergraduate forum, Jaffe emphasized that it was the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department's task to establish how to meet the proposals' goals, there was no intention to reduce the frequency of Yiddish language classes and that few students pursued the NEJS minor.

"One of the reasons I wanted to come here was because I thought, wow, there are so many different kinds of majors here, and I thought that unique people would gravitate to this school," Janette Myette '13 said.

Jaffe noted that with over 40 majors and similar number of minors, dropping two or three "I really don't think is a major change in terms of the breadth of possibilities."

"I think the Brandeis 2020 Committee did a fairly good job of finding a balance," Caroline Grassi '12, an Italian Studies undergraduate departmental representative said, "While it's disappointing for my department to face a cut, it's understandable since the department's only tenured professor will be leaving in the next two years."

Jaffe pointed out that students could put together an Independent Interdisciplinary Major in Italian Studies through the Boston Consortium or Study Abroad but that the University didn't want to be "claiming we have a major that we don't really feel we have enough courses to justify.

Pointing out the "fundamental" influence Anthropology Ph.D. students had on her classroom experience, Union Vice President and Anthropology UDR Amanda Hecker '10 asked about the effect of the program's closure.

"We do anticipate that there will still be teaching assistants in Anthropology," Jaffe said, noting the continued existence of the master's program.

Jaffe went on to say that he did not think the new Division of Science would be a change very visible to undergraduates because the individual departments would still exist.

"What we're thinking of doing . is instead of each [of] those departments individually putting together their curriculum that would be coordinated at the level of the division."

Jaffe said he could not yet say exactly how the plans for the theater program would play out. "Our goal is to have a terrific undergraduate theater curriculum that includes all aspects of theater, including design," he said. "Exactly how we're going to do that and reconfigure the department ... I honestly don't know."

With two new faculty hired already for next fall in addition to two hired through the Kay Fellows Fund, fellowships for postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and the social sciences, Jaffe pointed out that "we will be hiring many fewer faculty over the next few years" compared to the usual number of 12 to 15 per year.

Former Student Union President Jason Gray '10, also a member of the Brandeis 2020 Committee, encouraged concerned students to reach out to faculty to help shape the new curricula with them.

"I thought they did a good job responding, and they made me not afraid of how the reputation of the school is going to be after this proposal and after there are major cuts," Janette Myette '13 said after the forum.

"My primary concern is why did we get to the point where we're cutting majors, and what I want to know now is what can the University do to cut other things ?. I'm not terrified anymore.