Spicing Up First Year With a Touch of Ginger

In the Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) last week, Acting Dean Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78 put the finishing touches on plans for her first week with the Class of 1995, capping off a summer of transition which began when Henry C. Moses stepped down at the end of June.

Beyond Mackay-Smith's office--cluttered with schedules of Orientation Week and notes for an impending meeting with proctors--the receptionist had already received a preview of things to come: one father (who admitted to sneaking into Strauss Hall before the September 6 opening date) had called to complain about his son's room.

Mackay-Smith, a veteran of the Yard, is used to irate parents, among the many traditions of the first year at Harvard College. Six years as a proctor, a term as senior advisor and a stint as assistant dean of first-years have helped make this last transition easier.

Two months of frenzied preparation came to an end this weekend, and Mackay-Smith said last week that this year's Orientation Week should be much the same as last, with some occasional new twists.

The six senior advisors from across the Yard and Union dorms will make a special effort to emphasize their own smaller community of first-years, Mackay-Smith said. For example, the traditional march of the entire class to the Radcliffe Quad for a picnic will be replaced with smaller picnics within the first-year groups.

For the most part, the acting dean says that Harvard will try its best to introduce the students to their new school in a straightforward manner. "A visiting committee last year that looked at our freshman year said we were coddling," Mackay-Smith said. "I take issue with their terminology."

"Sometimes the freshmen do feel as though they're being talked down to, but then we try to fix that and do it differently," Mackay-Smith added.

Mackay-Smith, who will head the FDO in 1991-92 while a committee searches for a permanent dean, says she is enthusiastic about her new job, although abandoning her proctorship for a full-time administrative post is "a mixed bag."

"There is much greater contact with proctors and non-resident advisors...but I'm going to miss the day-to-day interaction that I had with the students before," Mackay-Smith said.

To make up for lost time spent with first-year students, Mackay-Smith will revive an old tradition by holding weekly teas at her 53 Dunster St. home.