Students Protest Harassment

More than 200 members of the MIT community rallied yesterday to protest the university's handling of sexual harassment cases and to petition the administration for policy changes.

Speakers at the Mass. Ave. rally called particular attention to an incident in which a female graduate student charged a professor with sexual harassment.

Marina Erulkar, who charged Business Professor Gabriel Bitran with harassment, was one of the first speakers at the rally.

"This could happen to anybody here," she said.

While Erulkar spoke, counter-protesters waved banners saying, "Stop your bitching," and, "She asked for it," according to rally organizers.

Earlier this month, a Middlesex Superior Court rejected Erulkar's sexual harassment suit against the university and Bitran.

Erulkar accused the university of demoting her after she complained that Bitran kissed her several times while the two worked together.

Students at the rally circulated a petition telling President Charles Vest: "We want a harassment guideline distributed to the MIT community and we want a binding referendum on the policy."

The petition, which received 181 signatures, proposed adoption of an "ideal policy" drafted by Peer Advocates Against Harassment, an ad hoc committee of the Graduate Student Council.

"The policy in place at MIT is just a policy. There are no guidelines," said organizer Mary Herndon, a cofounder of the committee.

Ann Russo, a lecturer in the women's studies department at MIT suggested that the university standardize procedures for dealing with complaints, keep better records, and centralize the resolution of harassment problems.

Spokespeople for MIT defended the university'spolicies. "MIT is one of the leaders on the issue[of harassment], and has been for a long time,"they said in a prepared statement.

Organizers of the rally, however, criticizedMIT administrators for not responding more quicklyand completely to claims of harassment.

"MIT has refused to set procedures againstsexual harassment," said Corinna E. Lathan,co-founder of Peer Advocates Against Harassment."Everyone is uncomfortable with the MITadministration."

"Reforms are badly needed," said Jeff L.Newbern, a MIT sophomore. "Normally harassmentcomplaints at MIT are met with indifference andinaction."

Though Herndon said the rally was "a greatsuccess," she said "I think [the administrationpolicy] is a lost cause."

She said that she thought the only way tochange university policy was through a classaction suit in which two public interest groupshave "expressed interest," or through the U.S.Department of Education.

This story was compiled with wiredispatches.