The student body was invited to participate in a town hall meeting on March 31 regarding the status of the current administration’s work to reassess the curriculum. Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies, spoke on behalf of the faculty and their participation in these incoming structural changes. Christensen marked the importance of “shared governance,” expressing the need for a full faculty vote to make any of these changes. Interim President Arthur Levine echoed this sentiment and added his surprise that 88% of the faculty voted in favor of the changes, adding that an anonymous faculty member made the following jest: “You couldn’t get 88% [of the faculty] to vote that tomorrow was Tuesday.” On April 28, the final amendments will be delivered to ratify the new structure. 

The new structure contains various different facets, including four new academic schools: Arts and Humanities, Science, Business and Social Sciences and Policy. There was also a mention of new committees and groups to gauge the curriculum that would be guided by the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Jeffrey Shoulson; however, it was unclear if this was separate from these schools of thought or in tandem. Levine has high expectations of these four schools, also referenced as units, translating their application to the following areas: culture, technology and engineering, underlying economics and social sciences/social policy. A further suggestion was made by Levine’s comments to “give these units permission to dream” that there was a desire to capture the ideas of the faculty and allow new forms of education to emerge as a result. When asked about the school’s U.S. News & World Report Rankings by a student during the Q&A portion of the event, Levine referenced this restructuring as a significant factor in the way the university will be viewed moving forward, “We will have, in effect, reinvented the liberal arts, and we think there will be stories everywhere.”

A general description of the changes to be enacted emphasized the goals of measuring students’ knowledge rather than the type of study and bringing more experiential opportunities to students, such as internships. The former desire is reflected in the new “Competencies” transcript to be added along with the current student transcript that is intended to portray a mastery of skills rather than a student’s grades. These competencies were described as skills for the job market that would be aligned to different professions and have the potential of students obtaining certificates and showing mastery of skills along with their grades. Levine expressed his enthusiasm about this competencies transcript and its potentially lasting effect on bridging the gap between liberal arts education and the job market: “We hope you will use it for the rest of your lives.” Levine discussed the timeline for these changes with the following remark: “You should run into the competencies and new transcript in your time here.” When a student expressed concern about these competencies attempting to quantify more abstract ideas of mastery such as a mastery in critical thinking, Levine responded with assurance that these competencies should be viewed as supplemental. 

Other notable changes to come in the fall semester include three new majors added to students’ potential declaration options: engineering, communications and a combination major of philosophy, politics and economics called PPE. Construction of the new dormitory will also begin, which, according to Levine, will break ground by this summer. Levine will also be pursuing a capital campaign trying to raise large sums of money from people affiliated with Brandeis with a goal of “somewhere between $750 [million] and $1 billion.” On the topic of school funding, a student raised the concern about affordability for Brandeis students as part of the aims of this capital campaign, which was met with the following analogy by the interim president after detailing his discussion with a consultant regarding cutting tuition in half, “I find it [the financial situation] really appalling—if tomorrow Tiffany’s announced they were having a sale with all their jewelry half-price, would you want to shop there?” He then stated that the current price of tuition would need to be held, but more aid should be provided for students to come to the institution. A concluding remark by Levine, before taking questions, reinforced his intent of addition to all aspects of Brandeis. “We want to use that [the funds raised in the capital campaign] to make this place a better place to live, we want to enrich student life, we want more chairs, some more fellowships, we want some more scholarships—and we would even like a few more faculty.”