The plan presented at the midsummer deans’ meeting was framed as a way to integrate Allston with Cambridge and unite Harvard on both riverbanks.

But some—notably the majority of FAS science professors contacted this weekend—fear that sending some science departments to Allston will lead to divisions between departments, between teaching and research, and between undergrads and professors.

For several months, many FAS science professors have argued against any division.

“Splitting the sciences—that’s ridiculous [and] totally untenable,” Charles Marcus, professor of physics and member of the provost’s Advisory Group on Science—one of several UPPC subcommittees—said in an interview this August.

The Drawing Board

Over the past few years, a coterie of UPPC subcommittees have studied various aspects of Allston planning and consultants have gathered concrete data to fuel decisions.

For the past year-and-a-half, two main scenarios have been on the table—a graduate school campus anchored by the Harvard Law School (HLS) or a science hub with possible tie-ins to commercial biotech.

All plans include graduate school housing and cultural spaces, such as museums.

The plan focusing on science, which comes after the culmination of various reports from McKinsey, the UPPC, HLS and faculty committees, may be based on President Summers’ dream of an expanded biotech campus, but also on practical considerations.

FAS science and HLS, neighboring facilities in the North Yard, have been jockeying for all available turf in recent years.

According to a midsummer interview with Kathy A. Spiegelman, the director of the Allston Initiative and the University’s top planner, consultants found that if HLS were to move to Allston, few of its buildings could be converted into science facilities.

Additionally, 45 percent of the law school’s buildings are considered historic, meaning Cambridge’s preservation rules make drastic renovations nearly impossible.

Consultants also confirmed what many have long argued—that science and graduate student housing will require a lot of room to grow.

Growing Pains

In interviews this weekend, several professors and administrators identified life sciences and the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS) as the most likely candidates within FAS science for a cross-river move.