At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) today, University President Lawrence H. Summers will face professors who are questioning whether he lied to them last month, when he categorically denied that he had considered restructuring the University’s graduate and Ph.D. programs.

At last month’s Faculty meeting, Classics Department Chair Richard F. Thomas asked Summers whether he had “been contemplating or conducting even preliminary discussions” about changing two key aspects of long-standing University policy. He asked if Summers had ever considered empowering a faculty other than FAS to grant Ph.D. degrees, or if he had considered separating the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) from FAS and having it report to the Provost rather than to the Dean of Faculty William C. Kirby.

Interrupting Kirby, who had begun to answer Thomas’ question, Summers responded bluntly:

“No, and no,” he said.

But some professors have told The Crimson that University officials have discussed conversations about precisely such plans with small groups of Faculty. Two senior professors said they attended a meeting last Thursday at which outgoing GSAS Dean Peter T. Ellison told a group of department chairs that he spoke with Summers about the matter several months ago—and that they had clashed when the president advocated giving other faculties the power to grant Ph.D. degrees.

In addition, one senior professor said that Ellison told the chairs that several months ago Summers also met with faculty at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) to discuss the merits of allowing the school to award its own Ph.D. degrees.

According to the same professor, Ellison said that “there were some memos written by professors who had been at the meeting with the President and had shared what they felt were the President’s views of supporting other faculties being able to give the Ph.D.”

Chair of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture Yve-Alain Bois confirmed that Ellison had discussed the issue with department chairs last Thursday, though he would not confirm any specifics of Ellison’s conversation.

Ellison did not return repeated requests for comment yesterday.

Professors and administrators across the University agreed yesterday that the changes rumored to be under discussion are unlikely to become official policy.

But the discrepancy between Summers’ statements and what professors say they have been told might further weaken the already strained relationship between the Faculty and the president, especially in the wake of the Faculty’s no confidence vote last March.

“For Larry Summers to be answering just plain no to these questions that include even ‘preliminary discussions’ doesn’t seem quite accurate,” one department chair said. “I think it might well be the case that they’ve given up on this issue, but it seems as if they did quite possibly consider this.”

University Provost Steven E. Hyman, Kirby, and Summers’ spokesman yesterday all repeated the president’s April denial that any preliminary discussions had taken place.

And several deans—including HMS Executive Dean for Administration Eric Buehrens, HMS Dean for Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies Nancy Andrews, Kennedy School Director of Degree Programs Joseph McCarthy, and School of Public Health Dean for Academic Affairs James Ware—said they had not heard of any such discussions.

Professors said they did not know why, if such discussions had indeed taken place, Summers would not be completely forthright with the Faculty.