But the current scrutiny, according to Green, is intended to look less at the structure of the committee system and more at how it actually works in practice.

"The reports should get in the hands of the department chairs more quickly," says Green, who is working on the report with the Committee on Visitation. "[And in] some areas that only get visited every three years, it's a little too slow. Then there are other cases where three years may even be too frequent."

Vincent J. McGugan '72, chair of the visiting committee on athletics, disagrees with Green's second point. "Three years is a period of time to get major changes and trends," he says. "I think our perspective is more longterm."

Princeton associate provost Ruth J. Simmons, chair of Harvard's Afro-American Studies visiting committee, says she thinks the committees meet often enough.

"Since the visit itself is so involved, it might be onerous to meet more often," says Simmons. "[This system] allows departments to address recommendations...between meetings."

Simmons says, however, that she thinks the committees themselves could move somewhat faster. One advantage of Princeton's visitation structure, she says, is that reports are issued more quickly once a committee is formed.

"It's not clear to me that it circulates back to the people who have the task of implementing the suggestions made," says Simmons.

But other committee members say there are problems Green's report will most likely not address, most importantly how usefully critical they are.

"FAS departments look on visiting committees coming to give assistance," says Andrew F. Brimmer, an overseer who has served several committees including the economics and Kennedy School committees.

"Most visiting committees turn in reports that are seldom critical. It is rare for the committees to raise fundamental criticisms," says Brimmer. "The typical report is only marginally helpful."

Other committee members, however, dispute Brimmer's view. Nancy G. Morgan, who has served on several committees, attributes the lack of immediate progress to the typical slowness of change in academia.

"We were able to point out some needs of the professors and departments [in Afro-American studies]," says Morgan. "It may not be a quick fix, but over time the concerns people may have with the department are looked at more quickly. Nothing moves quickly at the University."

MIT professor Jerome L. Friedman, chair of the physics visiting committee, says he has never been pressured by the department to soften reports.

"We look at it not as a personal matter," he says. "This is an outstanding group of physicists on this committee who are experienced in their respective communities."

And the visiting committees have not sat still over the past several years, instead turning inward to enact change within themselves. A recent trend, according to administrators, is the development of subcommittees dealing with more specific departments or issues.