The Undergraduate Council's Freshman Caucus annual concentration fair for first-years begins today in the Freshman Union.

Designed to provide advising for students about to pick their concentrations, the fair will continue through Thursday.

According to fair organizers Nienke C. Grossman '99 and Stephen E. Weinberg '99, both members of the council's Freshman Caucus, the event provides valuable opportunities for first-years to make contact with faculty in their perspective concentrations before making decisions in the spring.

Nearly all concentrations have confirmed they will send representatives at some point during the fair, Weinberg said.

The fair will take place in the rotunda of the Union between 11:45 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. on all three days. Representatives of the concentrations will be present to answer questions of first-years about their departments.

"It's very important for advanced standing students who have to pick their concentrations soon, and it gets everyone else thinking about it," Grossman said.

The concentration fair is traditionally the first activity of the Freshman Caucus, and has gained in popularity since its move from Memorial Hall to the Union rotunda last year, Grossman said.

"Nobody ever came before, and all the professors were excited last year because people just stopped by when they were eating lunch," Grossman said.

Weinberg said students seemed interested in the fair

"They said they were really looking forward to being able to shop around at different concentrations without having to go from department to department," Weinberg said.

According to Weinberg, a typographical error on some of the invitations caused some of the departments that were scheduled for today to come to the Union yesterday.

Weinberg said he is apologizing to the departments for the error and arranging for them to come back today.

The vast majority of the concentrations will be unaffected by the error, though a few will be unable to reschedule, Weinberg said.

"I hope that many students will tke advantage of thesis opportunity and apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced by this mix-up," Weinberg said.

For the first time this year, professors are given bag lunches for their efforts, partially subsidized by the Freshman Dean's Office and the Freshman Union.

The caucus has been working on this event since the beginning of the year and has published the event with posters and announcements, encouraging their classmates to attend.

On Tuesday, departments scheduled to attend are Applied Mathematics, Astronomy, Biochemical Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Chemistry and Physics, Computer Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Environmental Science and Public Policy, History and Literature, Math. Philosophy, Psychology and Special Concentrations.

On Wednesday, departments planning to attend are: English and American Literature and Language, Folklore and Mythology, German, History, Linguistics, Literature, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Romance Languages and Literature, Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Slavic Languages and Literature, Sociology and Visual and Environmental Studies.

Thursday the fail concludes with representatives from Afro American Studies. Anthropology, Classics. East Asian Languages and literature, Economics, Fine Arts, Government, History and Science, Psychology, Religion, Social Studies, Statistics and Women's Studies