While Nathans explicitly notes that prefects are not suppossed to give academic advice to their prefectees, outside of the FDO, proctors and prefects alike disagree about what kind of advice is appropriate for prefects to give to first-years.
The prefect program website notes that "While proctors shoulder the responsibility of formal academic advising and personal counseling, prefects can help direct first-years to other College resources, like peer counseling groups or department offices."
However, many prefects say that they not only direct students to department offices, but also give informal advice about what classes they have liked in the past.
"We never tell them that they can't give advice on classes," says Jonathan F. Cahill '01, a former officer in the Prefect Program.
Brennand says that a prefect's role as an informal academic advisor depends on their relationship with the proctor.
"A lot of proctors haven't gone to Harvard," Brennand says. "With these proctors, prefects often play a large role."
White says his impression is that "prefects in their training are told that they can only give advice if asked about a class."
"I think that the University is saying, 'We don't train the prefects like we train the proctors and we're not going to give them the same role,'" he says.
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