Today the Faculty will hear about a proposed new academic calendar which would move fall semester exams to before winter break and create a month-long term in January.

The calendar, which will be presented by the Curricular Review’s working group on pedagogy at the Faculty’s monthly meeting—within a larger presentation on the current progress of the curricular review—would put Harvard on what is known as a “4-1-4” schedule.

Most of the other Ivies operate on a two-term system—with first semester exams before the holidays—but schools such as Cornell, MIT and Williams, which currently use the 4-1-4 calendar, offer their students the opportunity to take short, intense classes, work on research projects, and participate in artistic programs during a January term.

“I think it’s a very interesting idea and its certainly something we should examine,” said Richard M. Losick, professor of molecular and cellular biology and co-chair of the working group on pedagogy. “There are many creative ways such a block of time could be used.”

The new calendar would synchronize the Faculty of Arts and Science’s schedule with most of the University’s other schools, whose students are registering for spring classes when undergraduates are taking their fall exams.

Student opinion is split over the idea of having exams before break. In a poll of 363 undergraduates conducted by The Crimson last week, 45 percent said finals should be given before the holidays, while 40 percent said that exams should not be moved.

But the poll, which was launched just as the 4-1-4 calendar was publicly proposed, did not ask about the new schedule.

According to Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies Jay M. Harris, the Faculty would be willing to give exams before break depending on specifics of the proposal, such as maintaining a reading period.

“In my class, for example, I give my last class on Dec. 15 and my exam on Jan. 24. There’s nobody on earth who’s going to defend that as a good thing,” Harris said.

And Jones Professor of American Studies Lizabeth Cohen, the other co-chair of the pedagogy committee, said revamping the calendar could also help coordinate the calendars of all 12 of Harvard’s schools, which now begin and end their terms at different times.

The Kennedy School of Government, the Law School and the School of Public Health already hold “Jan.-terms,” said Cohen, who added that the Design School and the Divinity School are also exploring the 4-1-4 option.

“The most important thing is that the semesters start together to facilitate faculty teaching in other schools and students, particularly grad students, cross-registering,” Cohen said. “What is not at all set is having a January term.”

But Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 said he wouldn’t support any changes that would affect either the length of the break between semesters or reading period.

“I rather like the long breaks between semesters that we have,” Mansfield said. “It gives time for refreshment. I preferred the time that reading period gives to look things over again, or even do them for the first time.”

The effect on term-time courses might also predispose professors against changing the calendar, according to Losick.