Freshman Advising Plan To Emphasize Proctors

Yard proctors will carry a greater share of the freshman advising load, F. Skiddy von Stade '38, Dean of Freshmen, announced yesterday.

Under a revised advising program beginning this September the number of freshmen with proctor-advisors will more than double. Currently, about 20 proctors counsel more than 200 freshmen.

Von Stade explained that the new plan will effectively shift the advising burden from an already overworked faculty onto the shoulders of Yard proctors, most of whom are first and second year graduate students. He expects the change-over will be gradual and he added that he is against having all 30 proctors take on counseling jobs.

The immediate effects of the new plan will be to reduce the number of advisors from 117 to 100, thereby speeding up administration procedure.

The new program will also tighten the bonds between freshmen and the Dean's Office. "I feel that most official contact with first-year men is naturally made in the Yard," von Stade said. "The new plan would only serve to formalize this by assigning more freshmen to resident tutors."

Student Council Report

This strengthened program developed from work by his office and from a Student Council report printed last spring. The two plans concurred on major points and the past fall has been spent in ironing out details.

Under the present advising setup one faculty member handles nine advisees. The new plan will cut this ratio slightly and reduce the number of faculty advisors, though never eliminating them entirely. "They are much too valuable a part of the system to lose entirely," von Stade explained.

The new plan permits the Freshman Dean the right of appointing a man with no other Corporation appointment to the post of freshman advisor.