said Dean of Harvard's Undergraduate Law Degree Program Todd D. Rakoff '67, who voted against the change. "The faculty thought that [the Yale system] lumped together too many people.... It would vary in too much quality."

According to Andrew Z. Michaelson, a third-year law student who is the spokesperson of Catalyst, a student reform group, many students supported the three-tier proposal because it would eradicate a perceived arbitrariness in grading.

He said many students feel there is often little justification, for example, in receiving a B grade, rather than a B+.

Second-year HLS student Arkadi Gerney said the plan would have been a significant first step in reforming the school in the wake of the McKinsey study.

"The three-tier was the most progressive proposal yet," Gerney said. "It would [have made HLS] like Yale, which is hailed by US News & World Report as the best law school in the nation."

Gerney, who was present at Friday's vote, said he felt faculty who would have supported the plan were underrepresented. He said faculty members rejected a proposal to vote on the plan at a later date.

"Most of the African American professors were at the alumni event, but they took the vote anyway," he said. "By in large, those who voted to kill the three-tier proposal also voted to not postpone the Friday vote."