Faculty to Vote on Dismissing Elster Next Week

After the dismissal last month of D. Drew Douglas, Class of 2000, for sexual assault, Harvard's senior and junior professors will again gather in University Hall on Tuesday to vote on the dismissal of Joshua M. Elster, Class of 2000, an administrator said yesterday.

Elster pled guilty last September in Middlesex Superior Court to raping and assaulting a female undergraduate.

After reviewing student statements and evidence, the Administrative Board voted to recommend Elster's dismissal to the Faculty--a punishment that requires the approval of the full Faculty.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 will introduce the motion for a vote at Tuesday's Faculty meeting.

Dismissed students have the option to petition the Faculty for readmission after at least five years.

In recent years Harvard has reserved its harshest punishment, expulsion--complete severance from the University--for cases of admissions fraud. Over the last few months some have criticized this precedent, saying convicted rapists should never be allowed to call themselves Harvard students.

When the vote to dismiss Douglas came before the Faculty last month, five professors introduced a motion to lessen his punishment to simply a requirement to withdraw for five years.

For the debate and vote on Elster's punishment, Professor of Psychology Daniel T. Gilbert, who was among the five professors, said "no such motion is planned as far as I know."

Members of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence, a group that staged a rally with two other student groups during the Douglas vote, said they are not planning any action in connection with this vote.

"There's a misconception that we planned that rally in response to the Douglas case, which is not the case at all," said Rosslyn Wuchinich '99, a Coalition member. "It was never meant to be a response to a specific case."

"The issue of sexual assault at Harvard has never been about one or two or three cases," she added.

Wuchinich said she does not expect much discussion about the severity of the punishment at the faculty meeting.

"Of course [people who admit to raping another student] should be dismissed," she said. "It should just go through."

According to Middlesex county prosecutors, Elster and the woman he raped knew each other for about one-and-a-half months before the rape occurred. They had arranged to meet in her room on Jan. 29 of last year.

At that time, Elster and the victim first engaged in consensual kissing. Then, when the woman rejected his further advances, Elster struck her across the face, forced her to undress and raped her. Neither was under the influence of alcohol.

Elster pled guilty to three counts of rape, two counts of assault and battery and one count of indecent assault and battery.

The former Kirkland House resident is on probation for three years. He cannot contact the woman he raped or enter Harvard property or University buildings during that time.

Elster's attorney, Kenneth F. D'Arcy '58, refused to comment about the vote yesterday.