Lewis' Comment on Safety Outrageous

In the Mar. 7 Crimson, Dean of the College Harry Lewis is quoted as saying, about the Tuesday incident in which an Adams House resident was attacked, "It was not late at night on a well-lit street. What can one say except that students, women in particular, should try to travel with someone?"

These comments were reported in the context of the Dean's "[frustration with] the low rates of safety precautions [students] have taken." Lewis' words imply that the student did several things right (not being out late, being in a well-lit area) but nonetheless made a mistake by being alone. Calling attention to the student's actions in this way, especially with the preface "what can one say except...," implies that it is the student's behavior that needs to be changed. This suggests that the assault was, in some way, her fault.

If this is what Dean Lewis intended, it is absolutely outrageous that he feels Harvard's responsibility for campus safety is entirely fulfilled by decreeing that women students should not walk alone at night. (Perhaps Dean Lewis is unaware that many students' schedules require them to travel home from the Yard late at night; for instance, my fall tutorial ended at 10.30 p.m.) If Dean Lewis did not intend to hold the student responsible for what happened to her, that is, to blame the victim, I find it deeply regrettable that the official who determines and embodies Harvard policy on undergraduate life should have so little sensitivity to how his remarks might be interpreted.

In any case, Dean Lewis seems remarkably blase about the incident. It seems to me that there are many other things "one could say" about it, perhaps concerning Harvard's commitment to campus safety and certainly concerning efforts to apprehend the assailant, who is to blame and who deserves Lewis' censure. -Katherine L. Dunlop '97,   Member,   Harvard Alliance for Safety Training and Education (HASTE); Participant,   Battered Women's Advocacy Project   Harvard Law School

Editor's note: Dunlop also sent this letter to Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68. Lewis wrote a response and e-mailed it to The Crimson. It appears at right.