Proctors E-Mailed Unofficial Evaluation

On May 27, as students were packing up to leave for the summer, freshman proctors received an unusual request.

An anonymous e-mail, from "John Harvard" at a yahoo.com e-mail address, asked all proctors to fill out a survey about their experience working for the Freshman Dean's Office (FDO), and then send it, anonymously, to Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley "Ibby" Nathans.

The survey, written by a group of proctors, was organized without the consent--or even the knowledge--of administrators in the Freshman Dean's Office (FDO).

According to an introductory note that accompanied the survey, the evaluation was intended to jumpstart a discussion about "the role of proctors: what is working, what is not," and to "prompt the FDO to have [proctors] officially evaluate [their] experience in future years."

The 28-question survey, which was also sent to Nathans, asks proctors whether their direct superior, one of three Assistant Deans of Freshmen, "respected [their] opinion" and "was helpful and supportive to [the proctor's] students."

A proctor who said he was involved in writing the survey (and who would only communicate with The Crimson via the anonymous e-mail address) said the survey was modeled after an official evaluation that first-years fill out about their proctors at the end of the school year.

"People are intrigued. It's kind of weird, because it didn't come from the FDO," said one proctor who asked that her name not be used. "I don't remember anything like this ever happening before."

Nathans refused to give her opinion of the survey itself, but she said the FDO tries hard to get feedback from proctors and students alike.

"The FDO solicits from both proctors and non-resident freshman advisers in both fall and spring, either narrative comments or, if proctors/advisers prefer, face-to-face meetings to discuss their sense of how their work is going and any areas in which they would welcome additional support or any suggestions they would like to offer," Nathans wrote in an e-mail.

But one of the proctors who wrote the survey said they worry that proctors risk their jobs when they come to the FDO with critical feedback.

"What we argue is that the current means of giving feedback aren't safe--or more to the point some proctors don't feel as if they are safe," the proctor wrote in an e-mail.

Reaction to the survey among proctors was mixed. Some said it was inappropriate.

"I've never felt any inhibitions about telling the deans at the FDO what I thought, so I didn't really understand it," said Michael A. Armini, a proctor in Grays Hall. "I feel like if people want to complain, they should do it in the light of day."

Other said the time for confidential feedback about the FDO is long overdue.

"There's a group of proctors who desperately want to be heard and feel that they have not been heard," said one proctor.

Many of the proctors The Crimson spoke with saw the survey as a direct challenge to the FDO, although the survey's authors say that was not their intention.

"It's coming from someone outside the administration. I don't know what that means, but it's not something that the FDO asked for," said one proctor.

In the fall, several current and former college administrators told The Crimson that the FDO has a history of strained relations with freshmen proctors.

Nathans restructured the FDO in the early '90s, replacing informal "senior advisors" with three assistant deans, and firmly centralizing authority on matters such as discipline and advising within the FDO.

Nathans told The Crimson last fall that the change was meant to ensure consistency in matters of discipline across the Yard, but some administrators say the role of freshmen proctors has suffered as a result.

They say Nathans' policies have left proctors with their hands tied, unable to function as confidential resources for their students and unable to exercise judgment about when a problem should be reported to an assistant dean.

Nathans said that, so far, she has received only a single completed survey--although several proctors told The Crimson they planned to fill out the survey in the coming weeks.

--Daniel K. Rosenheck contributed to the reporting of this article.

--Staff writer Parker R. Conrad can be reached at conrad@fas.harvard.edu.