Kirby did say yesterday that FAS had hired a consulting firm earlier this spring to advise him and the next GSAS dean “on a broad range of issues facing the graduate program here and at other institutions.”

According to one senior professor, the firm was hired to conduct a survey of various department chairs to gauge their opinion on FAS’s exclusive oversight of Ph.D. programs. The professor also said he was interviewed by the firm.

Baird Professor of Science Gary J. Feldman said that this survey has largely been responsible for generating the concerns that Thomas voiced at the Faculty meeting last month.

“Kirby claims that he did [the survey] only to show that this was not a good idea,” Feldman said, noting that “the FAS has traditionally protected its role as being the only Ph.D. grantor in the University.”

Several FAS professors, wary of breaking with this tradition, want Kirby to explain in detail the purpose of the survey.

“I think what we need in a situation like this is a lot better candor,” one senior professor said. “What was the charge of the consulting firm? What were they doing?”

Kirby, who noted that the question of whether faculties other than FAS should be allowed to grant Ph.D.s has come up in the past, said he plans to address the issue at the Faculty meeting today.

—Daniel J. Hemel contributed to the reporting of this story.

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

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