Acting First-Year Dean Ginger Mackay-Smith doesn't know what she'll be doing next year. But as far as this year is concerned, the headquarters for Harvard's 1600 first-year students is running just the way it always has.

To the casual observer, the Freshman Dean's office does not look like it has changed much over the summer, only a few subtle alterations in decor hinting that something is different about the headquarters for Harvard's 1600 first-year students.

What's new? For starters, a jar of yogurt-covered raisins sit on the Dean's desk. A Chinese screen print displays itself on the wall. And a complete map of the Harvard campus, circa the University's 350th reunion, sits by the door.

These distinctly low-key changes serve as an appropriate marking of the begining of the term of Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78 as Acting Dean of Freshmen. Like her office, she isn't a far cry from what came before. For as Mackay-Smith discusses her priorities and approaches to governing first-year life, one thing becomes clear: she is largely following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Henry C. Moses, who left Harvard last spring after a 10-year stint to become headmaster of Trinity School, a prestigious private school in New York.

That probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise to those familiar with Mackay-Smith's background, considering the fact that her life's primary administrative experience has fallen under Moses's supervision. After leaving a doctoral program in health policy at Harvard, she became a proctor in the Yard in 1984, a post she held until this year. In 1986, Mackay-Smith became a senior advisor for first-year students, and in 1988 she became an assistant dean in the FDO.

The House That Moses Built

Besides her firsthand experience with the Yardlings, Mackay-Smith says, she is relying heavily on the advising structure Moses built.

And in fact, the pillar of her administration's training for proctors and nonresident advisers--the people who deal with students on a day-to-day basis--will rely on old standby procedures. The week of orientation before students arrive. Ongoing training throughout the year. The monthly newsletter. Bimonthly meetings with proctors. And of course, the evaluations.

"A lot of the ways we deal with freshmen will continue," she says.

Farther down to perhaps the most grassroots level of advising, Mackay-Smith says she is an enthusiastic proponent of the Moses-initiated prefect program, which matches upperclass students with first-year entryways, as a means of helping integrate first-years with the rest of the College.

"This is a program that Hank Moses started," Mackay-Smith says. "It came out of his whole vision of advising freshmen."

Mackay-Smith also wants to continue with some of the more diverting traditions instituted under Moses, such as the Dean's teas, which are held at the Dean's residence, across the street from the Office of Career Services.

"I would go to the freshman tea from time to time," Mackay-Smith says. "I liked the atmosphere, a nice low-key environment--I speak in jargon these days--to meet the community of freshmen."

Inside Jokes

Mackay-Smith does want to bring back, however, a tradition that has gone by the wayside in recent years: end of the year proctor skits about inside jokes of first-year life.