First-Year Advising Informative, Helpful

Sarah Jacoby's opinion piece in The Crimson (Oct. 1) suggests that she was unable to benefit from at least one piece of routine advice offered to Harvard first-years. Harvard students are encouraged not to think in stereotypes, but rather to challenge assumptions and avoid unwarranted conclusions. Although it is unfortunate that Jacoby's own advising relationship disappointed her, her sweeping generalization about "friendly yet blank" eyes fails to describe either the knowledgeable and dedicated colleagues I've had the privilege of associating with during my first few weeks as a proctor or the behavior of first-years who appear to find their advisers informative and helpful as well as friendly. My own preparation for this position, not only as a recent graduate of the College and a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, but also as a highly-rated non-resident adviser to first-years last year, hardly matches the briefly-trained prototype Jacoby presents, and many of my colleagues are far more experienced than I.

Clearly it would be regrettable for first-years to "take all the wrong courses" and frantically to change concentrations the following year; yet I doubt that this is a representative portrait of all rising sophomores, either. While no system is perfect, I am proud to be a small part of the outstanding collection of resources that Dean Nathans and her assistant deans have assembled for the benefit of Harvard's first-years. Jacoby would have served readers better by acknowledging the existence of advising successes as well as failures, but then perhaps based on her own experience she doesn't have a clue. --Christine Soutter '72   Freshman Proctor