History professor Charles S. Maier ’60 echoed that concern, cautioning that although online education may be the model of the future, it still merits thoughtful consideration.

“These things may be taking place in the world, but my own sense is that there is a great fast train at the station, and we’re rushing to get on without knowing where it is going,” Maier said. “We might think about which train we want to take.”

Though the governance discussion took up nearly two-thirds of the meeting, faculty did vote to approve a number of procedural proposals, including new rules in the Handbook for Students that would change the way reading and exam periods work. Beginning in 2014, Reading Period will be shortened and all final papers and projects will be due during the newly named Final Project and Examination Period.

Tuesday’s meeting was the last regularly scheduled faculty meeting of the year.

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @npfandos.

This article has been revised to reflect the following clarification and correction:

CLARIFICATION: May 11, 2013

An earlier version of this article stated that History of Art and Architecture professor Jeffrey F. Hamburger quickly refuted the claim that the Faculty Council is not serving its purpose as a mechanism to raise faculty concerns to administrators. To clarify, Hamburger did not directly refute this claim.

CORRECTION: May 11, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Hamburger enumerated several alternative discussion tools recently facilitated by the Council. In fact, Hamburger alluded to comments made by history professor and vice-chair of the Faculty Docket Committee Maya R. Jasanoff ’96.