Proctors

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I write in response to an article in the Undergraduate Council's newsletter entitled "Enhancing freshman academic advising." The Academics Committee finds many freshmen "not taking prerequisites to potential concentrations, wasting electives, and taking too few or too many Core courses," and blames the problem in part on the assertion that "freshman proctors are chosen more for their social skills than for their familiarity with the Harvard academic system." Further, it complains 'hat "[m]any proctors did not graduate from Harvard-Radcliffe, and most are not familiar with the various concentrations."

Proctors are chosen on many criteria, including their ability to help freshmen make their own informed decisions. All proctors are college graduates, some from "Harvard, some not. The proctors who have degrees from other schools are just as capable of giving general advice about course selection as anyone else. The "Harvard academic system" is not so different from others so as to require a Harvard diploma to help students begin to explore it. Advisers need not be expert in every concentration and its requirements: for concentration advising, students are referred to individual departments to consult experts in their subject.

One of the points of the Council's proposed "solution" is to have "upperclassmen...attend all dorm proctor meetings to answer freshmen's questions." The advice and experience of upperclassmen are valuable resources for freshmen, but there is not reason to think that undergraduates can give better advice about any concentration except their own. The advising system here is supposed to foster independent thinking, encouraged by concerned guidance. The College hires older people as proctors and advisers for a reason: their experience makes them better qualified to be a student's first source of counsel.

It is certainly true that the advising system here is less than perfect, and I applaud the Undergraduate Council's interest in improving it. But the Council's characterization of freshman proctors is grossly unfair, and the proposed "solution" to the problem is no solution at all. Daniel R. Melamed '82   Proctor, Thayer Hall