Some students, however, are skeptical.

“Just to err on the side of caution,” said Yale first-year Adam B. Cushner, “I would probably be a bit more attentive and attend a few more classes.”

The facebook system has been used by Yale Law School for several years. It came to the attention of Yale College’s Teaching and Learning Committee after several faculty members expressed a desire for a student photo database. A test program launched earlier this fall, and the committee plans to expand it in the coming year.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 says it is already quite easy for instructors at Harvard to create their own facebook of students in their class.

He said he doesn’t see it as an invasion of privacy, however.

“There is...a certain irony in students having misgivings about being recognized in class, given what one hears about complaints about lack of student-faculty contact and the supposed anonymity of Harvard classes,” he wrote in an e-mail.