1955 Will Bow in With Giant Orientation Week

Meetings, moving, laundry salesmen, and even advice from Phi Beta Kappas crowd the first week of the entering student. Just when things get quiet and an easy, country-club-like future seems apparent, the tyro finds his days crowded by the first meeting of classes.

Orientation is done scientifically at Harvard, and the program varies little from year to year. A meeting is always held at Sanders Theatre the evening after registration, and this year's featured speaker will be R. Keith Kane '22, a Fellow of the College (local patois for a trustee). Most freshmen come away from this meeting full of Harvard history and convinced that their alma mater is not just another college.

One special attraction of the initial week is the Sunday session conducted by Phi Beta Kappa to give advice. Held at the Union from 6 to 8 p.m. on September 23, this is the third annual informal discussion sponsored by the honor society.

College males will meet Radcliffe for the first time on a large scale at the traditional Saturday night dance which many upperclassmen try to crash. Since this first dance is always crowded, Phillips Brooks House will hold a series of small teas later in the term which will provide a better chance to get acquainted.

Athletic Ability Test

During the first week the athletic ability of the freshmen will also begin to be tested. Every man must be able to swim 50 yards or he will be assigned to swimming classes until he can. A more vigorous examination is the physical efficiency, or step test.

Students are required to mount and back off a bench for five minutes at a rapid clip. A good many of those who last out the five minutes period have too high a pulse beat at the end and so fail the test. Men are assigned to special exercise classes until they can pass the test with the properly casual pulse beat.

The rest of the first few days are taken up with placement tests, course selection with the harried adviser, and registration where students have to write their last name -- middle initial -- first name on countless forms. Two mass meetings are also held to introduce the academic and the athletic side of Harvard life.