The tutorial and advising systems suffered much under the crowding strain. It was under this pressure that the University first began a heavy reliance on teaching fellows and non-faculty advisors.
The College had spent years developing a tutorial system to put students in contact with upper-level faculty for advising and instruction. As more and more first years arrived, teaching fellows were hired to advise at $20 per student. The arrangements threatened the intimate faculty-student relations upon which Harvard prided itself.
Dean Bender called the ad hoc solutions "highly unsatisfactory."
Dean of Freshman Delmar Leighton saw them as necessary sacrifices to the exigencies of the day, but hoped future students would receive more individual treatment during their first year.
"[First year advisers] are the least experienced members of the teaching staff and are not likely to have the knowledge of different fields in which freshman need competent guidance," he said.
"It is my hope that the return of more normal conditions will make it possible to reduce the proportion of inexperienced men on the Board of Freshman Advisers and to…give to Freshman access to their fair share to the experience and wisdom of the whole teaching staff," he continued.
Setting the Size Trend Read more in NewsRecommended Articles
