Finestone said Nathans contacted her "months ago" concerning potential scheduling conflicts. "Usually, we have to initiate, "Finestone said. "This was a nice change. It shows [Nathans] cares a lot about freshmen."
Nathans said entering students will also be exposed to issues of gender earlier in the year.
"Calling It Rape," performed in December last year, will be held during the orientation period.
Nathans also announced the Radcliffe Convocation will be held the first Monday of classes, and will "focus more on gender issues involving both men and women."
The changes were received favorably by students interviewed yesterday.
"Since some incoming first year students have had little exposure to the issues of rape and date rape, the scheduling of "Calling It Rape" during orientation week is critical to raising awareness week is critical to raising awareness about the issue," said Maura H. Swan '94, co-chair of the Radcliffe Union of Students.
Increased Interaction
Nathans said new plans also aim to foster increased interaction between first-years and upper-class students. Orientation week will "carve out a more substantive role" for prefects throughout next year, she said.
Concentrating gatherings will introduced entering students to upper-class concentrators, Nathans said.
And a plan to have graduating seniors write essays on their Harvard experience for entering first-years should also help them feel more at ease, she said.
"We want them to book in early to a network of student information," she said, "forming comfortable links in the student community."
Nathans also announced an ambitious program for acquainting students with Cambridge and Boston. Entering students may choose between 50 and 80 possible city-related activities which will take place during the latter part of the first week.
The proposed community-related events, such as a walk through historic sections of Boston or a trip to a Red Sox game, would be directed by Harvard and Radcliffe faculty and may entail required reading in advance, Nathans said.
The programs will allow students to "focus on their particular interests" in an area "beyond Harvard's gates," Nathans said.
"We want to get first-years to think about what they're doing here," she said. "We want them to think about all the communities they're joining. Even as late as Thanksgiving there were students yet to get into downtown Boston. That shouldn't be," she said.
Nathans she said she hopes leaders will act as guides during the trips into Cambridge and Boston, not "as authority figures."
In addition to these changes, Nathans said she also hopes to involve more parents in the orientation process.
Nathans also said the FDO is currently developing a handbook for parents, which would provide information about college policies and services.
"We want to make parents informed for their discussions with their sons and daughters," she said.
Nathans said the handbook will be "vastly more comprehensive than [mailings to parents] in the past.