My theme uses some custom options fields, like post excerpt, that were removed from the editor screen with WP 3.1

I understand and support the intent to clean up the content workspaces. However, as a result of the 3.1 upgrade, I have had several support requests related to the fields that suddenly disappeared with 3.1

I issued a tech bulletin informing them of the change and how to get the excerpts field back using the "Screen options" button, but its still an issue for novice users.

Is it possible, from functions.php, to reset the screen options for a given WP screen?

For example, I want to bring back the "excerpts" field while editing a post as well as the "Posts" selector when editing/creating "Custom Menus".

PS: I understand that these options can be manually configured via "Screen options", but you might be surprised how many users have never seen or used that button :-) 

We tend to narrowly focus on the elements we are intent on working with at that instant and block out everything else. I do it myself and its human nature.