Brown Adopts Plan to Provide-Student Advisers for Freshmen

Brown University administrators last week supported a student proposal that would establish an upperclassmen advising system for freshmen, similar to a program students here are trying to establish.

Organizers of the Harvard program "Students Helping Students (SHS)" last week collected over 300 applications from upperclassmen seeking adviser posts. This may enable them to reduce the planned six-to-one ratio of freshmen to advisersArthus J. Kyriazis '80, who is helping to organize the program at Harvard, said yesterday.

They Liked It

Leonard H. Ginsburg, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania who started an SHS program there last year and is helping to set up the programs here and at Brown, said yesterday the response at Brown has been "unbelievable."

In two days of work, the Brown organizers have received over 100 applications from upperclassmen interested in becoming advisers, and the president and several other administrators at Brown have endorsed the program. Ginsburg said.

At both schools, freshmen will be assigned to upperclass advisers according to their fields of academic interest. The advisers will meet frequently with the freshmen and organize gatherings with Faculty members.

At Brown, freshmen are currently assigned to faculty advisers, but "they never seek them after freshmen week," and upperclass counselors live in freshman dormitories, but they "are supposed to deal with everything, not just academics." Shaun D. Brown, president of Brown's student government, said yesterday.

Since Harvard upperclassmen do not live in the freshmen dormitories, the SHS would provide a link between freshmen and upperclassmen, and also have academic functions, Ginsburg said.

Shot In The Arm

"The fact that Brown administrators approved the program so quickly indicates that it is not a fly-by-night idea," Kyriazis said, adding he hoped the reaction at Brown would encourage Harvard administrators to support SHS.

Henry C. Moses, dean of freshmen, said yesterday he would not discuss approval or disapproval of the program until he meets with Kyriazis this week.

Several freshmen proctors said yesterday they thought there was a need for the SHS program to supplement the advice they give to freshmen