The Future of the First Year

A passerby walking through Cambridge on a spring day in the late 1970s might have witnessed a most unusual sight: a large home raised on the back of a truck, deposited soundly on a plot of land at 6 Prescott St.

Apart from this move, the Freshman Dean’s Office (FDO)—and the structure of the Harvard freshman year—has remained largely the same since its conception in 1930, even as the University and the fabric of the student body have changed.

Today, as in decades past, freshmen are housed in Harvard Yard and its immediate satellite dorms. They still live in small entryways staffed by proctors, who serve as academic and personal advisers. Freshmen still face the daunting task of choosing a concentration and a blocking group at the end of their second semester.

But recent shake-ups in the College administration, along with the momentum of the ongoing Harvard College Curricular Review, suggest future modifications to the FDO and to the social and academic aspects of the freshman experience.

The Class of 2010 and beyond will likely encounter a Harvard first year different than the one the Class of 2005 has left behind.

In the last two years, various curricular review committees have considered such major changes as a shift to Yale-style housing—in which freshmen would be matched with an upperclass House from the start—a move to push back concentration choice to sophomore year, and calls for more formal peer and faculty advising.

While the curricular review’s Committee on Advising ultimately decided against the earlier recommendation to switch to Yale-style housing, top administrators say that a push for a new housing system that would bring freshmen in closer social and academic contact with upperclassmen is not off the table.

“It’s certainly possible that we would consider a different housing model in the future,” Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 writes in an e-mail. “But not as part of the advising proposal of the curricular review.”

And even if future freshmen are not matched with a House upon their arrival, their experience may more closely resemble that of upperclassmen today.

“Our goal is to change the freshman residential experience and make it much more like the House experience,” says Deputy Dean of the College Patricia O’Brien, who is also co-master of Currier House.

Administrators are pushing for greater alignment between freshmen and upperclassmen in order to address some of the central challenges of the current freshman experience, including the lack of a coherent advising system, an unclear role for proctors, and social isolation between the Yard and the Houses.

Shifting roles for freshman proctors and House staff may go hand-in-hand with efforts at integrating freshmen and upperclassmen, primarily through peer advising and College-sponsored social activities.

These changes will all be considered as the FDO sees new leadership for the first time in over a decade. As current Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans leaves this spring, Thomas A. Dingman ’67, another seasoned College administrator, will take the reins at 6 Prescott St.

Despite the weight of tradition, the first-year experience—one of the longest and most closely guarded rites of College passage—is on the brink of change.

THE STAGE IS SET

Dingman’s arrival at the helm of the FDO this summer marks not only a change in the office’s leadership, but also a new era in the College administration.

Nathans—whose forced departure was made public last fall—was another casualty of the overhaul of the College administration, which began with the forced departure of former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 in the spring of 2003.

Known for her hard-nosed administrative style and firm leadership of the FDO, Nathans was openly opposed to many of the early recommendations of the curricular review, particularly the push towards Yale-style housing. At the helm of the FDO for over a decade, Nathans led an institution that held a large degree of autonomy within the College and oversaw both residential and advising aspects of freshman life.

Nathans declined to comment for this article.

Under Dingman, who currently oversees residential life for upperclassmen, the FDO—and the first year as a whole—are likely to become less self-contained.

PROCTORS OF THE FUTURE

Freshmen proctors wear many hats: they serve as disciplinarians, community builders, academic advisers, and personal mentors. Under the current Yard structure, around 60 proctors oversee entryways of around 25 students.

But if administrators succeed in creating more opportunities for freshmen to be advised by faculty members, the role of proctors could change dramatically.

The curricular review committee on advising, which rejected the proposal for Yale-style housing, recommended a dramatic increase in the number of faculty advisers to freshmen, with a goal of eventually ensuring that every one is matched with a faculty member.

Dingman says the College is recruiting “vigorously” to attract faculty who will take on the role of advising freshmen and remove some of the “load” of advising from proctors.

Jesse L. Maki ’04, a first-year proctor in Stoughton and student at Harvard Medical School, says that faculty advisers—if dedicated to their job—could be “an amazing resource” for students.

“I can’t offer you a place in my lab or do anything for your career. All I can do is offer good advice on choosing classes and picking a concentration,” she says.

Such a change would free up proctors to take a role closer to that of upperclass House tutors.

According to the Handbook for Students, freshman proctors currently have oversight of the “academic progress and personal welfare” of the students in their entryways, building communities centered around a small group of freshmen. Resident tutors, on the other hand, are expected to be a presence in the House, making themselves available to individual students to advise on issues from fellowships to relationships.

“I think the role of proctors and tutors is very similar,” O’Brien says. “I think it will become even more similar over time.”

Proctors agree that, apart from the ambiguities in oversight and responsibility, the expectation that they must offer academic and personal guidance to what sometimes amounts to an entire entryway of students is stressful.

“I think there’s a tremendous amount of responsibility that proctors have and maybe it would be helpful to cut 20 advisees to a more manageable number of 10 or something,” says Ronald Brown, who has served as a proctor in Holworthy for four years.

“If the proctors have fewer people to advise academically, then they can give more time to each and the students can feel consequently that their needs are being addressed more fully,” Dingman says.

But some proctors question whether providing faculty advisers to each freshman is feasible, or even desirable.

In order to lighten proctors’ workloads, 40 percent of Harvard freshmen are currently assigned to non-residential advisers, and proctors say that there are drawbacks to having freshmen receive academic guidance from people who do not live in close proximity to them.

There are currently 250 non-residential freshman advisers—including some 30 junior and senior faculty members—each of whom advise about two or three first-years apiece.

Proctors say that, since they advise many students at a time, it may be easier for them to stay on top of logistical details and academic requirements than someone who only has a few advisees.

Maki says she often has to clarify matters for students in the care—or lack thereof—of non-residential academic advisers.

“Frankly, I had spent a lot of time with my freshmen who had non-resident advisers going over mistakes or misconceptions,” says Maki, who had 29 students in her entryway this past year.

Proctors also say that knowing students in a residential setting helps them better understand the personal matters that also influence students’ academic lives.

“It’s hard to be a good academic advisor if you don’t have a sense of what’s going on in [the student’s] life,” says Sujit M. Raman ’00, who has served as a proctor for three years.

As the College moves towards shifting academic advising away from residential life, proctors say they are waiting for their roles to become more clearly defined.

“No one really knows what to expect. There’s a lot of speculation but there’s no consensus even among the speculators as to what exactly will change or what this will mean for our role,” Brown says. “Everyone’s eager to find out.”

BEYOND THE YARD

One of the key arguments for Yale-style housing was that it would allow freshmen to receive academic guidance from House tutors and upperclassmen.

This proposal has now been put aside, and Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby says, “From the point of view of advising, there was not a compelling argument” for Yale-style housing.

But momentum is still building towards having freshmen take advantage of the resources available in the Houses.

In an interview this month, University President Lawrence H. Summers listed among his accomplishments of the past year a move towards an advising system that would “emphasize a peer-to-peer context” over the next few years.

Apart from interactions in counseling services and extracurriculars, the Prefect Program is the only formal structure through which freshmen have regular access to upperclassmen. But Dingman says the prefects have been constrained by the rules of the program, and have not been able to realize their full potential as advisers.

“Freshmen have appreciated the prefects who have stepped up and done their job, but [prefects] have been told up to now to pretty much not take on academic topics,” Dingman says.

Brown says that peer advising could provide freshmen with knowledge of “specific courses and specific professors, which is something that proctors usually can’t talk about.”

But Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin, who advised 22 freshmen as a proctor this year, says that students will always need someone impartial and unbiased to talk to about sensitive academic issues—such as poor performance in a class—who is not a peer.

“I think upperclass students have a role but I think proctors will continue to shoulder the weight of advising,” McLoughlin says.

Gross emphasizes that freshmen should be able to take advantage of different advising resources in different situations.

“I think freshmen benefit from advice from several different sources,” Gross writes in an e-mail. “Their proctors can give them invaluable advice on adjusting to college, dealing with roommates, staying healthy and getting enough sleep, etc. Upperclassmen can give advice on specific courses and on extracurricular life. And the faculty is the right source for advice on academic matters, especially on the choice of a concentration.”

BUILDING CONNECTIONS

Gross once said that freshman life in the Yard is like being surrounded by a “moat,” a metaphor that indicates the physical and psychological separation between freshmen and upperclassmen.

Several of the social and academic directives from University Hall, many of which will be planned by upperclass students, seem to be an effort to bridge that divide.

Dingman says any changes in the undergraduate housing system, or moves toward peer-to-peer advising, would be executed so freshmen could enjoy “more meaningful interaction with upperclassmen.”

“Here the freshmen are totally disconnected from the houses,” says Eliot House resident tutor Alexander G. Liebman, who spent his undergraduate years at Yale.

Liebman says this isolation and the lack of social options in the Yard for freshmen can lead to a deflated and uncomfortable social scene.

“I think it’s probably bad for the social scene because you have freshmen who are compelled to go to final clubs or upperclass parties as opposed to where they might feel more comfortable. It pushes people out to things that may be less appropriate for them,” he says.

Changes to the fall orientation week for freshmen are geared toward fostering greater interaction between incoming students and upperclassmen while also building relationships among the freshmen.

McLoughlin says that freshmen will be introduced to the Harvard community in “layers,” with five more social events to supplement the traditional freshmen-only ice cream party.

The final social event will be a school-wide barbecue mixing freshmen and upperclassmen before the activities fair. Incoming Campus Life Fellow Justin H. Haan ’05, who is working with the Prefect Program and the Crimson Key Society to revamp next year’s Freshman Week, says that one of his top priorities will be increasing social options.

“I think the freshman year experience is so important because so much of social life here at Harvard revolves around House life,” Haan says. “There is very little freshmen and upperclass interaction. There really is a disconnect there.”

OVERCOMING AWKWARDNESS

But some say the enclosed nature of freshman year is crucial to forming bonds with other freshmen and adjusting to college life.

Raman says that while House life feels more “like college whereas the Yard might not” to some students, many freshmen are not prepared to be dropped into an “Animal House-like experience” their first year.

“The first year is a transitional year on so many different levels, and that’s what makes life in the Yard unique,” he says.

Brent Bell, the outgoing director of the First-Year Outdoor Program, says the Yard’s self-contained community helps to alleviate fears about social interaction held by most freshmen.

“Keeping all the first-year students together I think does give an opportunity...with everybody starting at the same level,” Bell says, adding that he has received “consistent feedback as to how awkward and uncomfortable people feel in the first couple of weeks.”

McLoughlin points to a crucial tension at hand—the importance of addressing concerns specific to freshman year while at the same time allowing for more integration between freshmen and the rest of the College.

“I think that if freshmen didn’t connect with their entryway and then their dorm and then their class before they began to be friends with upperclassmen, then they’re missing out,” McLoughlin says.

McLoughlin has been part of a University Hall push for more College-sponsored social events. While this year’s Pub Nights in Loker Commons were geared toward the entire campus, McLoughlin says that more social opportunities just for freshmen will be implemented by the time the Class of 2010 enters Harvard. He says this may include the pairing of entryways to hold events such as movie nights and study breaks together.

“We...heard from freshmen anecdotally that they didn’t feel connected to each other and that they wanted to meet more people,” McLoughlin says.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...

According to McLoughlin, Dingman’s move to the FDO and Nathans’ departure provide an opportunity to rethink aspects of the freshman year experience.

“With leadership change at the FDO everyone will be looking with a fresh perspective,” he says.

Still, James Mancall, one of three Associate Deans of Freshmen, emphasizes that the goals of the FDO will not change.

“I know both Dean Nathans and Dean Dingman to be fair, thoughtful, and experienced administrators,” Mancall says, “and the mission of the FDO will remain the same—helping first-year students to make the important transition from secondary school to college and beyond.”

—Staff writer Liz C. Goodwin can be reached at goodwin@fas.harvard.edu.