Like the new tenant in an old house, Elizabeth S. Nathans is rearranging the furniture.

Since she assumed the post of dean of first-year students early this summer, Nathans has turned the entryway of the Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) into a comfortable waiting room. And on the third floor, she has added chairs for senior advisors and visiting students to use.

"I called Dean Jewett the other day to tell him I had bought some furniture for the office with my own money, and that if I ever leave this place it's going with me," said Nathans last week as she took a break from moving FDO chairs. "He seemed shocked; I guess people don't do that sort of thing around here."

As the New England native settles into her Prescott Street digs, it seems likely that Nathans will eventually alter more than just the FDO floor plan.

Some Harvard insiders say they expect the former associate dean of Trinity College at Duke University to institute sweeping changes in first-year advising and in the FDO's relationship with the greater Harvard community.

"It won't take Dean Nathans very long since she's done this at Duke," says Henry C. Moses, former dean of first-year students and now headmaster of Trinity School in New York City. "And she certainly doesn't need old advice from the likes of me."

Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 says while he expects significant changes in the structure of first year at Harvard, he does not expect them in Nathans' first year.

"I think she will make some changes, but won't change things overnight," said Jewett. "She wants to go through it for a year."

Nathans says she herself won't discuss specific changes until a student committee presents its recommendations to Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57. But in an interview last week, Nathans spoke like someone who is thinking of shaking things up.

For example, she will talk about being impressed with the Harvard community's "tolerance for experimentation," in the same breath as she will discuss her concerns about first-year advising.

"In a place that has a lot of reverence for tradition, it's nice to see a willingness to try something new," she says.

Nathans, who is in her early 50s, comes to Harvard well qualified for the task ahead. Duke's Pre-Major Advising Center, which Nathans founded in 1988 and directed until this spring, is a national leader in undergraduate advising.

At Duke, each first-year student is assigned an adviser who is either a faculty member or a senior administrator. Advisers are required to sit for six three-hour sessions each semester, during which they meet with advisees face to face.

Ninety-six percent of the advisers return eachyear, and the program became so popular thatcenter officials say they had to keep a waitinglist of more than two dozen faculty members andadministrators who wanted to be advisers.

"We schedule the faculty and students ourselvesto make them get together," says John W. Zarker,interim director of the center. "We twist theirarms and get them there."

In addition, each academic department at Dukeemploys a director of undergraduate studies whohelps coordinate student advising with the center,says Zarker, a faculty advisor when Nathans wasdirector.