Professors at yesterday’s Faculty meeting were sharply divided over a recommended change to the academic calendar that would move final exams to before winter break, possibly paving the way for a third academic term in January.

While the decision will not be put to a Faculty-wide vote until the curricular review nears completion at least a year from now, professors expressed spirited arguments for both sides. Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba ’53, also the chair of the University Calendar Committee, reported on his committee’s findings.

The report, released March 22, recommended adopting the so-called 4-1-4 calendar currently in use at five of Harvard’s graduate schools as well as other colleges and universities such as Williams and MIT.

Moving to such a system would mean transplanting fall final exams before the winter break, beginning the school year directly after Labor Day, and leaving January free for the College to offer an extended break or adopt a month-long January term (J-term). This mini-term could be dedicated to classes or other curricular and extracurricular activities.

Verba said his committee had extensively debated its two major options—maintaining the current Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) calendar or moving to one that would better align the calendars of all of Harvard’s schools by moving final exams to before winter break.

“The committee found the latter schedule was the most conducive to all the schools,” Verba said. He later added, “Most of the schools are either there or going there.”

Verba said adopting such a calendar would yield several benefits for students. They would be able to go away on winter break without worrying about coming back to final exams, and they could begin their summers earlier as all academic work and exams would end before Memorial Day.

He also said his committee, which was not vested with the power to make specific policy changes, had considered many possibilities for the J-term in particular.

“It’s not the purpose of our committee to judge these alternatives,” he said.

Professors came down strongly on both sides of whether to reshape the calendar at all.

They argued against it for reasons ranging from personal difficulties with finding child care in the last weeks of August to worries over squeezing in exams before winter break.

Professor of Philosophy Thomas M. Scanlon expressed a concern that there simply would not be enough time before exam period to digest the term’s material.

“I don’t see it, in the terms in which it’s been presented, as a significant pedagogical benefit,” he said. “There does seem to be some educational loss. I think having a time to go back and reflect over [course material] is...valuable.”

He added that reading period is also an important time for student-faculty exchange.

“My sense is the time when the most students come to see me is during reading period,” he said.