Neil L. Rudenstine and Jeremy R. Knowles delivered their first public speeches as President and Dean of the Faculty on Sunday, welcoming thousands of first-year students and their parents to the Harvard community.

Rudenstine, who took office on July 1 and will be formally inaugurated in a gala celebration next month, delivered an informal and anecdotal speech, dotted with literary allusions that betrayed his background as a former English professor.

Wearing a soft yellow jacket with dark blue pants, Rudenstine recalled his first days as a Princeton undergraduate, when he often wondered whether he had made a mistake in deciding to attend college.

The dapper new president told the eager first-year students, including many who skipped the end of the Giants-Rams football game to attend the ceremony, that there would be moments of triumph as well as moments of despair during their undergraduate years.

"These are two pivotal kinds of experiences that if we learn to maintain in a liveable equilibrium, can be as profoundly educational as anything else you learn at a university," said Rudenstine.

Knowles, appointed by Rudenstine in June, delivered a light and humorous speech, and received the most applause of the afternoon.

He urged first-year students to be "bravely experimental" when choosing their courses and told them that they should never have to suffer in a course. "The curriculum is not designed to fill your minds, but to open them," he said, echoing the words of a fellow administrator.

The sound of police and fire engine sirens interrupted the tranquil ceremony several times, and Knowles delivered the one-liner of the day when he commented in his distinctive British accent, "I might mention in passing that Cambridge does not usually burn down with the apparent frequency that it is this Sunday afternoon."

Knowles ended his first speech by pointing out that the past eight deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are all still alive--proof, he said, that deanship is truly "a passport to immortality."

Linda S. Wilson, who begins her third year as Radcliffe President, was the veteran speaker of the exercises. In a serious speech, Wilson reminded the Yardlings that their undergraduate years will be a real part of their lives and not just preparation for life.

Besides Rudenstine and Knowles, the University's top two administrators, there was a third new face at the traditional opening ceremonies in Tercentenary Theatre this year: Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78, acting dean of freshmen. She assumed that post when Henry C. Moses stepped down after more than a decade as dean last year.

Mackay-Smith, a former proctor and assistant dean of freshmen, told the Class of '95 that Harvard is not a "do-it-yourself project" and urged the students to take advantage of the College's finely-tuned support system.

At the end of the ceremony, dozens of first-years and their families approached the south porch of Memorial Church to hobnob with Harvard's top officials. Rudenstine and Knowles patiently shook hands and chatted with all interested parties before walking off together toward Harvard Yard.