Advisor Plan Wins Support Of Von Stade

Skiddy von Stade Jr. '38, Dean of Freshmen, has thrown his support behind a plan to use upperclassmen as advisors to freshmen.

But Von Stade and the Harvard Undergraduate Council have decided on modifications in the original HUC proposal.

Von Stade said yesterday that he favors a plan which would use about 50 juniors and seniors for a series of voluntary question-and-answer meetings with freshmen. There would be five groups of upperclassmen, each associated with one one of the common rooms in the Yard.

The HUC's original proposal for supplementing the present advisory system that 35 sets of juniors and seniors be assigned to individual proctorial units and that a total of six upperclassmen live freshmen dormitories. Von Stade called that plan "cumbersome and difficult to implement," and worked out the revision with HUC president Gregory B. Craig '67.

Von Stade, who has jurisdiction over freshman proctors and advisors, said that said not institute the program until the House Masters discuss it at the April 18 meeting of the Committee on Houses. Six of the nine Masters have already indicated that they support the program, according to the HUC.

Craig will probably begin circulating applications by the end of the week to upperclassmen who are interested in what the HUC calls the Freshman Associate Program. An HUC committee will choose qualifed juniors and seniors with the assistance of the Masters.

Smaller Groups

The HUC hopes that the plan that is finally adopted will include provisions to associate individual upperclassmen with even smaller groups of freshmen and that the program will begin during freshman orientation week next fall.

The HUC offered its recommendations to Von Stade two weeks ago after a poll of freshman indicated that almost half the class believes their present proctors and advisors have made no "positive contribution" to their first year at Harvard.