Resident tutors, the foot soldiers of the Houseadvising system, must juggle their classes, jobsand lives with knowing 20 to 40 students wellenough to detect early warning signs ofdepression, eating disorders or substance abuse.

Julia S. Rubin '84, a resident tutor in QuincyHouse for the past six and a half years, saystutors are often too consumed by their ownambitions to concentrate on advising.

"The Houses select graduate students who are inthe midst of high powered careers or in the midstof establishing high-powered careers," Rubin says.

Moreover, she says the University seemsindifferent to tutors who fail to do their jobs.

"You practically have to slap the House in theface with not doing your job [before they let yougo]," Rubin says.

Matters are made worse, tutors say, by thequality of training tutors receive during atwo-day orientation in September and monthlyCollege-wide tutor meetings during theyear--mandatory meetings which arepoorly-attended.

The plan for next year: those meetings willlikely only be held two or three times a yearstarting in the fall, according to Thomas A.Dingman '67, associate dean of the House system.

Administrators are wary of giving tutors themisimpression that training--be it a week or aday--makes them qualified mental healthcounselors.

But Rubin says if administrators want tutors toact as the first line of defense, they shouldsponsor a more extensive orientation, similar tothe Freshman Dean's Office week-long proctortraining program.

"You need people who can deal with a variety ofindividuals in a pressure-filled situation" sheadds. "I don't think a 24-year-old graduatestudent is necessarily equipped to do thatalways."

Added to this are conflicting messages from theadministration, which maintains there aresituations where tutors should intervene but isnot particularly clear when that time is.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 saystutors should not be "diagnosticians."

"The standards of normalcy at Harvard are verybroad," Lewis says. "To what extent do studentswant the College to be negligent or to what extentdo we end up with a Big Brother phenomenon?"

This range of advising possibilities leavesmany tutors unsure of the extent they are expectedto intervene.

Identifying problems "is part of your job, butis an ill-defined part of your job," concludesMark A.J. Taylor, a four-year Winthrop Houseresident tutor. "It is not something you arealways qualified to do."