Yard Council Hopes to Revitalize The Freshman Associates Program

The freshman associates program is still sputtering in many parts of the Yard as the Freshman Council contemplates new steps to put it on its feet.

Alan Austin '70, president of the Freshman Council, said last night he believes the program will not work unless small groups of freshmen are assigned to blocs of freshman associates. At present, whole entries are assigned to blocs of freshman associates and the element of individual responsibility is absent.

The Freshman Council will consider after Christmas a formal recommendation to incorparate individual responsibility in the program, Austin said.

Austin hoped last month that the program could be vitalized without formal Council action. The Council requested before Thanksgiving that the freshman council members, proctors, and the senior advisor of each of the five units of the Yard meet informally with the associates assigned to their unit to discuss problems of the program.

With the results of these meetings now in, Austin says "very little got done."

He said he was disappointed by a poor turnout of associates at the meetings. "A tremendous number of the senior associates who did show up said they just didn't have any time for the program," he added.

In North Yard, where council member Jay Burke concluded the program was "dead," many associates indicated they thought the program could have little value.

West Yard, however, had a more fruitful meeting. There, freshman council members, associates, and proctors agreed on repudiating the principle of individual responsibility. "Freshmen don't want a big brother system," council member Paul Blum '70 said.

They also agreed that the program should not serve as an advising system. Instead, they thought it should simply provide contact with the Houses through dinners and parties.

Freshman associate David H. Weinstein '67 threw a beer party last Tuesday in Leverett House. Eight freshmen showed up from all parts of the Yard to mix with upperclassmen, resident tutors, a couple of professors and Master Gill.