Gov Department of Offer Harassment Counseling

The Government Department will appoint two professors to offer informal counseling on sexual harassment issues within the department, chairman John D. Montgomery said yesterday.

The counseling plan is the major recommendation in a report completed last month by a four-member department committee, officials said yesterday.

The committee was charged with recommending safeguards against future incidents of sexual harassment, in the wake of a harassment case involving a Government professor.

Panel Chairman Professor of Government Joseph S. Nye Jr. said yesterday his group proposed the counseling plan, which was approved last month at a department meeting, "to make sure no one feels isolated" when confronted with sexual harassment.

It apparently marks the first time a Harvard department will offer its own counseling.

The panel was created amid some department criticism of the handling of the recent harassment case involving two Government professors. In that case, Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky found a senior male Government professor guilty of sexually harassing a junior member in the department, but did not disclose what action he had taken to punish the harasser. Some department members have criticized the lack of publicity.

The counselors will be fully informed on the rights and procedures for parties in a harassment case and will be available to help handle any questions or complaints about sexual harassment, he added.

Both Nye and Montgomery said the counselors will offer a new, more informal channel for complaints than the existing grievance procedure but would not replace or supercede current University policy. Calling the proposed counselors "user-friendly," Montgomery added, "they won't in any sense displace what the University is doing."

Under current procedures, formal harassment complaints are investigated by an administrator and submitted to the Dean of the Faculty for a final decision. Cases involving two professors may also be reviewed by an ad hoc Faculty committee.

Equal Representation

Montgomery said he planned to appoint two faculty members in the department as the counselors by the beginning of the spring semester. Asked whether he would appoint men or women to the posts, the chairman said, "I hope we can get a balanced ticket."

Nye said the committee solicited input from the department and met with a group of Government graduate students in addition to receiving letters from a number of department members.

But Cynthia A. Sanborn, a second year Government graduate student and one of the group who met with Nye, said yesterday the students had generally recommended that the Government panel take a position on the University's procedures on harassment rather than limiting its discussions to what measures the department could adopt.

Nye said yesterday the department's scope was strictly limited to preventing sexual harassment within the department.

Sandborn said she was unsure if the proposed counselors would significantly improve the handling of harassment problems, particularly if male senior professors are appointed to the slots. "It opens one more channel, but I'm not too convinced that's a channel anyone would use if they were sexually harassed."

The other three committee members were Lisa Anderson, assistant professor of Government and Social Studies, Sidney Verba '53, associate dean of the Faculty and a senior Government faculty member, and James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government.

Montgomery said the committee's final report has been distributed to all professors and graduate students in the department.