Deans to Use Fifty Upperclassmen As Informal Advisors to Freshmen

Fifty juniors and seniors will become informal freshman advisors next fall under a new Harvard Undergraduate Council Program.

The HUC has begun recruiting upperclassmen for the Freshman Associate Program, which was approved last Wednesday by House Masters and deans at a meeting of the Committee on Houses.

Each of the five Senior Advisor in the Yard will determine how he wishes to use a group of ten associates to supplement the resident advisor system, which will remain unchanged.

The HUC wants the associates assigned on a one-to-one basis to proctorial units, usually about 25 freshmen, and would have them act as free agents, spending as much time as possible with freshmen and offering help in a variety of ways.

Details of the program are not yet fixed. The freshman associates will meet with senior advisors and proctors early in registration week next fall to decide whether the program will be confined to formal meetings and office hours or will give the associates the broad scope the HUC recommends.

Six or seven students from each House will eventually be selected. Gregory B. Craig '66-3, HUC president, says that there are no set qualifications--"we want a cross-section--everyone from jocks and clubbies to SDSers."

The freshman dean's office is choosing the associates and will consult house committee chairmen to determine which applicants are best qualified. House Masters will help in the selection only if personally asked.

Already the program has many more applicants than it can accept. Quincy, Kirkland, Lowell, and Leverett all have more than 20 sophomores and juniors who have filled out applications. The HUC is accepting applications until Thursday, and selections will be completed early this summer.

The associate program grew from an HUC study of the freshman advisory study in April. F. Skiddy von Stade Jr '38, dean of freshmen, rejected an original HUC proposal which would have put upperclassmen in the Yard as resident advisors and assigned groups of roommates as advisors to proctorial units.