While professors praised the work of the task forces, they cautioned administrators not to neglect other financial imperatives.

“I think the University has to proceed with great care essentially in order to ensure that the current mission of the University isn’t put into jeopardy by the fiscal demands of the ‘Harvard of the future’ we’re building [in Allston],” said Classics Department Chair Richard F. Thomas.

Though he called the Allston initiative “highly desirable,” he said that it must not come at the expense of other existing programs.

He said he was encouraged by Kirby’s suggestion that, in Thomas’ words, “when Allston is completed we should be able to look back and not detect any diminution of existing programs.”

Also, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures Chair Philip A. Kuhn said he hoped the Allston development will not result in the neglect of other financial imperatives, including what he called the “notoriously underfunded system of graduate student support.”

Discussion of Allston expansion dominated the meeting, and left time only for brief remarks by Kirby and Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 on the status of the curricular review.

Kirby announced a series of meetings intended to facilitate discussion of various issues pertaining to the review. The first meeting, to be held Dec. 10, will discuss proposed changes to the General Education curriculum.

Last year the General Education committee of the curricular review recommended that the College abolish the Core Curriculum in favor of departmental distribution requirements.

—Laura L. Krug contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff Writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu.