"I've enjoyed the greater freedom of living ina house and not having a proctor whose job it wasto check up on me," said Nicole P. Aementa '95. "Alot of people might find it invasive."

"I don't think the problems in Dunster are sofar-reaching that we need draconian measures,"said Dunster resident Vijay B. Culas '95."[Tutors] should be more pro-active in tellingstudents about the resources that are available."

Seeking Out Help

Tutors said one if the factors that hinderstheir effectiveness is students' reluctance toadmit they need help or let others know they arehaving problems.

"There are a very large number of people whofeel they should be capable of handling whetever'scoming down the road, no matter how bad that is,"said Barcus. "I think that's unfortunate."

"There's nothing wrong in asking for help. Itdoesn't mean you don't belong here," Laird said."I read that quote in the paper 'Never let anybodysee you sweat'. Everybody knows everybody sweats."

Neither Sinedu Tadesse '96 nor Trang Phuong Ho'96 offered any indication of personal problems intheir regular meetings with their entryway andpre-med adviser, Naiburg said.

Dunster House Master Karel F. Liem metregularly with both Ho and Tadesse as theirbiology tutor, according to Naiburg and PresidentNeil L. Rudenstine.

"Neither student had sought out a tutor,including myself, so that there were no signals inany way," Naiburg said. "Nor had anything come upin the regular advising conferences."

"If there was someone who was doing absolutelyfine academically and as far as I could see wasdoing fine socially...There would be preciouslittle for me in the way of signs" of problems,Barcus said.

But some students said seeking counseling atHarvard requires a degree of initiative that notall students posses.

"If students are having a tough time tellingfriends, I have a hard time believing they wouldopen up to tutor, who for the most part are twiceremoved from the situation," Culas said.

"What happened in Dunster could have happenedanywhere, no matter how much attention people are[paying to their advises]," Laird said. "We have areally good tutorial staff and students have saidthat, but you can't be Big Brother and stare fromthe corners of their rooms."

One thing is certain--the system will undergo are-evaluation, following the incident at Dunster.

"Dean Knowles and I have talked about...lookingto make sure that advising systems are aseffective as they can be, Rudenstine said. "Youcan never do enough, but at least I know thatthere were people in touch with these students.