Kirby recently informed members of the Committee on General Education that the committee will meet at least twice more this semester.

“So many things [in the review] are interconnected,” Ryan says. “It’s going to be very hard to discuss one part of it without the others.”

Regardless of how discussion tonight progresses, it is likely that voting on other areas of the review will be postponed until the General Education proposal is solidified.

“If you pass things piecemeal you will have trouble coordinating them,” says Kuhn. “Everything you pass conditions what else you can pass in the future.”

But Kuhn’s fears may be premature, as voting on any concrete proposals is not in the cards. After a winter of delay and sidetracking, tonight may be marked by only superficial discussion of proposals.

“It seems like a very heavily loaded meeting to me,” Ryan says. “It may even be that we don’t get to all the status reports.”

“Harvard has been here for a long time and its pace in some ways reflects that,” says Professor of English and American Literature and Language and Director of Undergraduate Studies Elisa New, a member of the Committee on a January Term. “There is a lot of discussion ahead and it’s hard to tell just how many loose ends there are.”

—Daniel J. T. Schuker contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Allison A. Frost can be reached at afrost@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.