Proctors agree that, apart from the ambiguities in oversight and responsibility, the expectation that they must offer academic and personal guidance to what sometimes amounts to an entire entryway of students is stressful.

“I think there’s a tremendous amount of responsibility that proctors have and maybe it would be helpful to cut 20 advisees to a more manageable number of 10 or something,” says Ronald Brown, who has served as a proctor in Holworthy for four years.

“If the proctors have fewer people to advise academically, then they can give more time to each and the students can feel consequently that their needs are being addressed more fully,” Dingman says.

But some proctors question whether providing faculty advisers to each freshman is feasible, or even desirable.

In order to lighten proctors’ workloads, 40 percent of Harvard freshmen are currently assigned to non-residential advisers, and proctors say that there are drawbacks to having freshmen receive academic guidance from people who do not live in close proximity to them.

There are currently 250 non-residential freshman advisers—including some 30 junior and senior faculty members—each of whom advise about two or three first-years apiece.

Proctors say that, since they advise many students at a time, it may be easier for them to stay on top of logistical details and academic requirements than someone who only has a few advisees.

Maki says she often has to clarify matters for students in the care—or lack thereof—of non-residential academic advisers.

“Frankly, I had spent a lot of time with my freshmen who had non-resident advisers going over mistakes or misconceptions,” says Maki, who had 29 students in her entryway this past year.

Proctors also say that knowing students in a residential setting helps them better understand the personal matters that also influence students’ academic lives.

“It’s hard to be a good academic advisor if you don’t have a sense of what’s going on in [the student’s] life,” says Sujit M. Raman ’00, who has served as a proctor for three years.

As the College moves towards shifting academic advising away from residential life, proctors say they are waiting for their roles to become more clearly defined.

“No one really knows what to expect. There’s a lot of speculation but there’s no consensus even among the speculators as to what exactly will change or what this will mean for our role,” Brown says. “Everyone’s eager to find out.”

BEYOND THE YARD

One of the key arguments for Yale-style housing was that it would allow freshmen to receive academic guidance from House tutors and upperclassmen.