The dean's office orchestrates the academic side of orientation, while a student steering committee works on the social and cultural aspects.

Like Brandeis, Cornell has a number of trained orientation counselors who lead small groups of first-years.

The role of an orientation counselor is to meet with first-years and to be available for questions or concerns, says Rebecca M. Sparrow, Cornell's assistant dean of students for new student programs.

"Students have a greater understanding of what's here on campus, and [student input] also ensures that we put on programs that have greater interest to students," Sparrow says.

Doing It Harvard's Way

The campus is dotted with Crimson Key members in red t-shirts; volunteers from student counseling and education groups arrive during orientation; and prefects meet their advisees early on in the week.

But despite the number of upperclass students working on various aspects of orientation, students have little direct influence on the shape of Orientation Week.

The week's calendar lists a plethora of open houses for extracurricular activities, all student-sponsored, but the week's central events remain the province of the administration. And of the week's many options, all of the mandatory events are run by the FDO.

Of the mandatory Orientation Week events, only one, "Building a Safe Community," relies heavily on student input.

The three-hour event, inaugurated last fall, features skits by student counseling and education groups. Topics addressed include personal safety, date rape, sexually transmitted diseases and alcohol abuse.

The health and safety event, which also includes presentations by the Harvard University Police and University Health Services is highly praised by administrators and students alike for its use of students on the planning committee and as presenters.

"This year the peer [education] groups were much more involved than in previous years," says Eric L. Ashley '00, co-director of Project ADD, a peer education group which deals with alcohol and drug issues.

"Student groups...are a great resource for the administration to tap during orientation," he says. "[I]t often seems that first-years listen more to other students than to administrators."

"While the administration could certainly conduct orientation without the student groups, we make the events livelier, more interesting and better heard," Ashley says.

Those on the administrators' side agree with Ashley's assessment.