Council member Jay. H. Jasanoff ’63, who is the Diebold professor of Indo-European linguistics and philology, said eliminating the ranking system is logical.

“My personal view is that the Rank List system is obsolete. It no longer has much purpose,” Jasanoff said.

He added that he thought the proposed changes were unrelated to the ongoing debate about grade inflation.

Lewis said the full Faculty will probably vote on the proposal at its Nov. 12 meeting. If approved, which seems likely, he said he expects the changes to take effect next year.

Harris said he expects the full Faculty will react similarly to the Faculty Council.

“I’d be surprised if there’s any serious opposition unless, between now and then, the students generate some,” he said. “But in the absence of any student concern, I can’t imagine the faculty would be.”

The John Harvard Scholarship and the Harvard College Scholarship were created by the Faculty in 1896 and 1898, respectively. The Rank List Groups were created in 1877.

This is not the first time the scholarships have been reconsidered.

In the late 1890s, the Board of Overseers felt students in Group II were unworthy of honorary “Harvard College” scholarships and attempted unsuccessfully to have the name changed to “Cambridge Scholarship.”

—Kate L. Rakoczy contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@fas.harvard.edu.