In interviews yesterday, Faculty Council members applauded the task forces for their speedily written reports and said that the controversy surrounding Summers earlier this year was pivotal in accelerating efforts to enhance faculty diversity.

“The current initiative would not have emerged with the strength it has had there not been that serious mistake,” Mendelsohn said, referring to Summers’ controversial January comments on women in science. “Will it therefore succeed? That’s not clear yet. We’ll know that only when the pieces are put in place.”

In other business, the Faculty Council on Wednesday briefly discussed establishing additional council subcommittees—specifically to examine the University’s plans for developing its Allston property.

“Obviously the University has committees working on Allston, but they don’t report directly to the Faculty Council,” Ryan said. “So we hear about progress and decisions pertaining to Allston only occasionally, when more or less the Dean decides that we should hear about it.”

The council also considered establishing its own subcommittee on women and minorities. But council members disagreed, Ryan said, “whether one should multiply the number of committees working on these topics.”

At present, the Faculty Council has only two subcommittees: one each on graduate and undergraduate education.

—Staff writer Anton S. Troianovski can be reached at atroian@fas.harvard.edu.