Transfer Kinks

In the fall of 1995, I transferred to Harvard from Middlebury College as a sophomore. I was prepared for Harvard to be colder in many ways than northern Vermont, but I did not realize the negative effect the Administration's attitude toward transfer students would have on my experience here.

The summer before I arrived here, I received almost no mail from Harvard. I did not receive a course catalog until two days before I left home. Unlike incoming-first-years, I did not receive the envelope full of pamphlets on extracurricular activities. When I called to request this information, I was told that these activities were student-run and that it was not the Administration's responsibility to gather this information for me.

Perhaps the Administration does not want to baby students who have already been in college for a year or two. If that is the case, the sentiment is appreciated, but judging from my experience here, it seems that laziness is the explanation for the ridiculous lack of concern for transfer students.

Arriving at Harvard, I moved into a room in Adams House with two other transfer students, who were just as bewildered as I was. Supposedly, we were going to learn all that we needed to know the next day at a meeting in the Science Center. But questions like, where the heck is the Science Center? were the first ones we needed answered, as we were not given maps. Even the John F. Kennedy School of Government gives maps to the students in its National Security Program. If future CIA agents and officials at NASA need maps, don't sophomores at the College?

In the Science Center, Former Dean of Transfer Students Elizabeth Doherty introduced us to the student in charge of the transfer orientation program, Transfer Links. She explained that we might run into some confusion, however, because the student leader had only accepted the position one week before school started.

When I tried at the end of my first year to become a volunteer for Transfer Links, I had to call several different people just to find out how to join. I found out later that it is the coordinator's job to contact volunteers, but the University had not found a coordinator.

Since Transfer Links is run completely by students, there are a number of problems with it. First, there is no continuity from one year to the next. No one in the Administration has ever made up a list of things that must be done every year. Each fall, Transfer Links must start from scratch.

There are a lot of transfers who would like to help, but they don't because they do not want to spend their summers fighting with Harvard's Administration. This year, especially, there were many problems with the program. The Transfer Links coordinator was told in May that there would be housing provided for 13 volunteers. But in the middle of the summer, the Administration cancelled all housing. Dean of Students Archie Epps III explained that transfer students would only be on campus for five days without Transfer Links volunteers, and that the program would make do with students who were already being housed for other programs.

The effects of this change were obvious. While 15 to 20 students per year normally volunteer for Transfer Links, this year only three showed up for the first meeting.

Further, since upperclassmen had fewer days to move into the Houses than in previous years, there was little time to organize Transfer Links into a coherent orientation program.

When my transfer class entered Harvard, there was someone in the Administration paid to answer our questions. Now there is only Thurston A. Smith who is extremely busy with his duties as director of student disability resource center, acting registrar and special assistant to the Dean of Harvard College.

Harvard is not a place that coddles its students, and transfers do not come here expecting excessive nurturing. But we do need to be shown the ropes better than we have been. If the Administration does not want to make transfer students feel welcome, it must let other students do so. Given the Administration's behavior, sometimes I wonder why Harvard admits transfers at all. Transfers could well be Harvard's most loyal advocates; they have experienced life at other colleges, but were so convinced of Harvard's merits that they were willing to give up everything they worked for at their previous schools to be here. Since Harvard does admit transfers, the University must devote more time and energy to making sure that transfer students begin their Harvard years feeling welcome.