"After the sophomore year, we keep up withthese people, but we don't make the effort" tomake regular contact, said Kathryn Welter,assistant senior tutor in Leverett House.

Many of the tutors interviewed said they felttoo much of their time was taken up with enforcingrules, leaving them little time to socialize withstudents.

"I think the problem is that too many residenttutors concentrate on their strictly rule-orientedduties and fail to communicate with people asfriends," Weitzel said.

"Part of the difficulty stems from the factthat the tutors aren't supposed to be proctors,"Lowell House Senior Tutor Alexandra L. Barcussaid. "There are some tutors who are more involvedwith their work and less accessible. We are aimingto cover wide range of academic fields. We haven'taimed to hire counselors, that's what [UniversityHealth services] and the Bureau of Study Counselare for."

The overlap between the academic and personaladvisory roles appears to be a central issue. theUniversity hires groups of tutors to provideacademic advice in each house, but rarely requestsa counseling background. Nelson said it is notusual for tutors to have counseling experience.

"I think what they could do is focus more onletting tutors know what they might be in for,"Nelson said. "The College has to be more organizedabout orientation."

One tutor suggested the college try a type oftutor mentoring program.

"I think conversations between veteran and newtutors need to happen," said Lance D. Laird, anassistant senior tutor in Pforzheimer House.

Many tutors and students interviewed said therole of the tutors is limited in a college whichtries to treat its students as mature adults.

"They're grown-ups. By and large they should beworking things out and coming to counseling whenthey need it," Barcus said. "The person who shouldbe concerned with the proctor type duties is thesenior tutor and the assistant senior tutors."

But at Thursday's meeting, Epps remindedstudents and staff that college is intended as atransition to adulthood rather than as a test ofmaturity.

"We want each student to know the value ofthese four years, and how college is a transitionto adulthood," Epps said. "We want to help allthat we can as we take those paths throughcollege."

But tutors said that they personally may not beprepared to handle some of the most difficultsituations which arise during that transitionperiod.

"Obviously, we're not trained professionals,"Barcus said. "All we can do is recognize what wethink is a difficulty and address it by sending itto the proper people."

Some students agree that a system of moreregular non-academic visits after sophomore yearwould be bothersome or patronizing.