Thirteen young urban planners filed into a conference room in Gund Hall.

Each of them had spent months examining the future of Harvard campuses—both in Cambridge and across the Charles River—and the time had come for them to present their tentative findings.

Armed with colorful posters and PowerPoint presentations, they came ready to explain their plans.

An attentive audience, representing many of the high-powered groups that will decide Allston’s future, sat in anticipation, ready to listen to the presentations and critique the plans. Representatives attended from Harvard Planning and Real Estate (HPRE), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which will ultimately oversee Harvard development in Allston.

And the plans were radical.

As a presentation flashed up on a screen, one planner unveiled her ambitious vision. Her proposal would create a new subway line to connect Harvard’s campuses in Cambridge and Allston to other major universities in the area.

Later, another planner pointed to the poster showing what it might look like if Harvard moved all its Cambridge-based graduate schools across the river. Her plan would also create a “Graduate House System” for students and their families, much like the College’s arrangement.

So went the mid-term presentations of thirteen students at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) last Tuesday.

The student are enrolled in an urban planning class that is specifically focused on the much-discussed future of Harvard’s Cambridge campus and the possibilities for the University’s extensive property holdings in Watertown and Allston.

Students have spent the semester so far comparing how other colleges have expanded and how these institutions get along with their home towns. Based on their research, the students have also tackled many of the problems facing a growing Harvard, ranging from the University’s relationships with its host cities to the transportation needs new buildings will create.

During the presentations, the Harvard and community planners who comprised the audience discussed each plan in turn, identifying pros and cons and pointing out what dilemmas each plan left unresolved.

Alex Krieger, one of the studio course’s instructors and chair of the GSD’s department of urban planning and design, said students are using the course to examine a wide variety of issues related to Harvard’s expansion.

“Some are questioning Harvard’s need to grow as much as it does,” Krieger said. “Some are trying to figure out how muchHarvard needs to grow.”

The proposal to develop a new subway line to connect Boston-area campuses came from GSD student Nora R. Libertun. Under her plan, a new T line would link Harvard’s campus to Boston University and other local college campuses in an “urban ring.” Currently, she said, there is “no connection” between schools in Boston and Cambridge.

For years planners in Boston have talked about creating an “urban ring”—a subway line that would circle the city and connect several T lines that currently spread from the city center. The area’s need for this new line, Krieger said, coincides with Harvard’s need for new connections.