Updated, Dec. 5, 2017: Harvard University’s president, Drew Faust, said that Harvard would maintain the restrictions on social clubs imposed in 2016 but that the clubs would not be banned.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University’s social scene may be in for a dramatic change.

A committee of faculty and staff members and students has suggested that numerous exclusive social clubs — including the secretive “final clubs,” fraternities and sororities — be “phased out” over the next five years. If enacted, the recommendation would end a centuries-old tradition of rarefied clubs at a university that have been criticized as deeply exclusionary.

A preliminary recommendation circulated to students and faculty members on Wednesday would bar students from joining “final clubs, fraternities or sororities, or other similar private, exclusionary social organizations.” Since Harvard has not recognized the groups for decades, the committee’s suggestion would, if enacted, try to eliminate the clubs by punishing the students who participate in them.

Final clubs, which for much of their history were all-male social organizations that offered an exclusive clubhouse and a tightly knit alumni network, have come under extensive scrutiny in recent years, and this has pushed some to begin admitting women. Some all-female clubs have formed over the years.