A parade of University officials, including the new dean of first-year students, welcomed the Class of 1996 to Harvard yesterday during an afternoon ceremony in Tercentenary Theater.

About 1600 first-years will register for classes in Memorial Hall today, embarking on a four-year voyage to enter the community of educated men and women. First-years may register between 9 a.m. and noon.

Those Yardlings who survive registration will submit to the two-hour expository writing test at 1:30 p.m.

The welcoming remarks, punctuated by Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral performances, included a general call to "test yourself" as well as specific pleas for less strident campus politics and patience with Yard renovations.

"I urge you to think about the community you ant Harvard to be," said Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans in her first welcoming address at Harvard. She told students to actively seek advice from faculty members, proctors and other students.

Nathans, a former Duke administrator, isconsidered a national leader in student advising[see related story, page B-1].

Nathans is making a priority of accomodatingthe 150 first-years exiled to 29 Garden St. duringYard renovations. The Freshman Dean's Office hasdistributed "29 G" T-shirts to instill a commonspirit in the displaced students.

"If you're at 29 G, you'll let your T-shirt dothe talking as your classmates complain," Nathanstold the first years.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles invokedRobert Frost in asking students "to listen to eachother" and "never lose your temper," an apparentreference to a contentious debate last springabout race relations on campus.

"Each of you comes from a school, a family, anda neighborhood that is more homogenous than theone you are in now," said Knowles, as heemphasized the diversity of the new class.

President Neil L. Rudenstine delivered arecycled version of the speech he presented tofirst-years last year.

He spoke of his first year as a Princetonundergraduate, and attempted to give the newstudents a preview of what he termed the "manicdepressive undergraduate cycle."

"I spent several days and weeks in my firstyear feeling that I didn't know or suspectanything," Rudenstine said. "By the time your fouryears have passed, you will have testedyourself...in the best way."

Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson used herspeech to discuss the relationship betweenRadcliffe and Harvard. She urged both female andmale first-years to take advantage of Radcliffe'sresources, suggesting a visit to the Lyman CommonRoom.

"It's an exciting time to be alive; it's anexciting time to be a woman," Wilson said."Radcliffe's mission is to advance society byadvancing women.