HLS Student Attacked Outside Langdell Library

Shortly after midnight yesterday morning six people--one holding a pipe--attacked a Harvard Law School (HLS) student outside Langdell Hall.

The most recent in a string of assaults on and around campus, the incident has prompted the University--and the HLS student council--to re-examine policing methods and campus security.

The group approached the student and tried to wrest a book from him, according to Peggy A. McNamara, spokesperson for the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

"In his effort to protect his property a struggle started," she said. "They started to assault him."

When HUPD arrived on the scene shortly after a phone call notifying them of the situation, the six assailants had fled. Their descriptions are currently unknown, McNamara said.

The student received scratches on the left side of his face but refused medical treatment, McNamara said.

She said she assumes the assailants might have punched the student and knocked him to the ground.

The administration has responded quickly.

For the remainder of the semester additional security guards will patrol the HLS campus at night, HLS Dean of Students Suzanne L. Richardson said. HLS hires its security guards separately from HUPD.

McNamara said that HUPD will also increase community policing in the area in the next few days.

Richardson's office sent an e-mail message yesterday to all HLS students about the assault, in which the administration detailed the night-time escort options and gave safety tips.

Two weeks ago HLS instituted a new policy enabling students to take taxis from the campus to their homes at night and bill the school, according to Richardson. Students must submit vouchers to the school to be reimbursed.

At the same time, HLS expanded van service to outlying residential areas, Richardson said. The operating hours, from 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., remain the same.

The HLS van service should be the main option for students, but if that is overbooked, they should call Cambridge Radio Dispatch and order a taxi, according to the e-mail message.

These heightened security measures were spurred by the March 9 rape of a Harvard-affiliated woman in Byerly Hall, Richardson said. "We're concerned for our student safety," she added.

The e-mail message said students can also call the Safety Walk Program, a volunteer student organization sponsored by HUPD, to escort them in Cambridge from 10 p.m. to 3:40 am Sundays through Thursdays.

Echoing the administrators' concerns, students are also advocating more awareness of safety issues.

Last night the Law School Council, HLS's student government, unanimously passed a resolution which called for greater police patrolling outside Langdell and suggested that the administration publicize safety and emergency numbers through stickers given to students and signs posted around campus.

"The infrastructure is there," said Manoj S. Mate, the student body president and a second-year student. "The University can do more in making sure students have ready access."

"This [resolution] is to do everything it can do to make sure the University is committed to promoting awareness," he added. "The Council wants to keep the pressure on the University and make students aware."

Citing the "recent rash of evening violence on and around the Harvard Law School campus," the resolution "strongly recommends that the Harvard Law School, through Dean [Robert C.] Clark and the Office of Student Life work with the Harvard University Insurance Office and Harvard Transportation Services to make the extended evening off-campus shuttle services into a permanent fixture at Harvard, as in years past."

Mate said one idea for increasing security around Langdell is to permanently station a security guard outside the library.

The resolution "gives us some type of bargaining power or leverage if we are to meet with [the administration]," he said.

While Mate said HLS has reacted appropriately and quickly in this case, he said the resolution is "not really applauding or congratulating the University," serving as more of a position statement.