The changes currently being debated at HLS are the products of three years of faculty-wide discussion.

Now the end is near.

"I actually hope the faculty will have approved it before Christmas. It then requires corporation approval," Meltzer says. "A great deal of what we want to do is dependent on fundraising."

Professors agree that the changes will have a significant impact on the school.

"I think the changes for the first years have the potential for substantially changing the character of the school," says Todd D. Rakoff '67, Dean of the JD program and chair of the academic development subcommittee.

Meltzer says that some changes, like grade distribution, will be implemented as early as this spring. The faculty has also agreed to examine a more flexible grading policy, which would attempt to eliminate grading discrepancies between sections of the same class.

Other proposals, however, such as the one to have smaller sections in first year classes, will take more resources and will not be implemented before next fall.

Last Friday, another aspect of the plan was approved--the faculty reached a strong consensus to increase their ranks by adding approximately 15 new members over the course of 10 years. This will reduce the size of first-year courses and allow the school to divide first-year students into smaller social groups called colleges.