A Question of Support

The female upperclass student didn't feel threatened--she just felt like he was "crossing the line."

After experiencing a number of incidents that she characterized as sexual harassment, she decided her House deserved a heads-up.

But who to talk to? Her House sexual assault/sexual harassment (SASH) tutor?

"It didn't even cross my mind," she says.

Instead, she approached a senior tutor to discuss the incident--someone she already knew.

She says her House SASH tutor isn't visible enough.

"If I really wanted something done, I'd go a level higher," she says.

While Harvard prides itself on its Houses--where tutors are the first line of interaction between students and the administration--this decentralized system has its disadvantages.

The College handles about four or five sexual assault cases in a typical year, and may face many more which go unreported, according to Associate Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87.

And while the issue began to attract campus attention in the wake of two highly publicized sexual assaults, some say the current tutor-based system does not have enough resources or administrative support to deal with sexual harassment.

"People don't think it matters," says Kaitlin S. McGaw '00, co-chair of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence. "It needs broader institutional support."

Training the Tutors

The College has already made some changes to its SASH advising system in response to the demands of the coalition.

The coalition has become prominent over the last few years, gaining visibility when two members of the Class of 2000, Joshua M. Elster and D. Drew Douglas, were publicly accused of rape last year.

One of the coalition's main worries: that the SASH training wasn't long enough, and that because it came in monthly installments with different speakers, tutors could potentially be confronted with issues for which they were unprepared.

Most tutors say this happened rarely, if at all, but some agreed that more up-front training was required.

So this fall, in response to the coalition, Avery instituted a beginning-of-the-year training session for all SASH tutors.

The four-hour crash course provided an overview for tutors, aiming to inform them about sexual harassment and assault issues before they started attending the more specific monthly sessions.

"I see room for improvement, but it was a start," says Kristin Scheible, SASH tutor for Dudley House. "I am an adamant supporter of an initial fall training session, not only because I thought it would have been a useful overview of info/resources, but also because in my conversations with the then-nascent Coalition Against Sexual Violence, I realized that the students wanted it," she says.

"Many cases come very early in the year, and students are far more likely to come forward if they feel that you have a bit of training," she adds.

Wanting More

But despite the new training session, some say House tutors are too overworked to deal with sexual harassment issues by themselves."

The SASH tutors are still mostly graduate students who already hold tutor responsibilities within the houses in addition to vast hoards of other roles and responsibilities in their lives," Jennifer L. "Orchid" Pusey '00, the coalition's secretary-treasurer, writes in an e-mail message. "Initially, then, they are not a reliable resource in that, like other undergraduates and especially tutors, their availability is sporadic. More often than not, being the SASH tutor is not the SASH tutor's primary or even secondary concern," Pusey adds. Some House masters argue that the House is an appropriate first line of response to sexual harassment issues. But Quincy House Master Michael Shinagel also notes that SASH responsibilities creates a new job for tutors, who have been asked in recent years to wear an increasing number of hats.

"To take people who are graduate students, who have their own stresses and strain, can overload them. It's very hard to take someone and enable them to be all things to all people," he says.

Of SASH, he says simply, "At least it's a first step."

Avery, the College administrator who oversees sexual harassment issues, is also a busy woman. She administers the newly formed Ann Radcliffe Trust, which funds campus women's groups. She oversees lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues and deals with gender-specific concerns within the College. Avery is also the only College-level administrator who is responsible for SASH. And while tutors credit her with being accessible and informed, students say with so many jobs to handle, Avery's role overseeing campus counseling should be handed off or augmented by someone else.

They worry that the absence of a central position devoted solely to offering counseling on such issues indicates a lack of commitment to providing institutional solutions.

Avery agrees that her duties have expanded enormously since her job was created by merging two half-time positions, one relating to counseling and the other to women's initiatives. As a result, she says the idea of a central counseling position will get "seriously looked at" next year. She anticipates that such a person might work with campus counseling groups and coordinate other resources.

Education Efforts

In addition to raising questions of training and resources, some of those involved with the SASH program say the House-based nature of the program makes organizing education and awareness-raising efforts difficult.

In Lowell House, resident SASH tutor Kirsten D. Sword has tried to organize preventive education--but says few people show up.

"It's so difficult to organize anything at the House level," she says.

Sword says she would like to see a professional consultant hired to develop a "curriculum" for community education. Harvard's structure makes preventive education difficult, she says.

"The larger problem of community education is much harder to resolve, and it is something that is endemic to the decentralized nature of the University," Sword says.

Avery notes that the students who attend educational events are often those who need them the least.

"You end up preaching to the choir," she says.

And the College can only enforce "mandatory attendance" at those events to a certain extent.

Scheible doubts that students pay enough attention to existing College-wide resources, either.

"Does anyone read the Tell Someone' brochures?" asks Scheible, who says she does not support making more meetings required. "Attendance at non-mandatory educational outreaches is minute." Decentralization Remains, For NowThis year the coalition has focused on discussion of sexual harassment issues rather than activism, but members of the group continue to call for change to the SASH advising system.

Pusey says that while adding fall training was an improvement, "that step is only the first of many in the reconstructive process."

Avery says she thinks the House-based system is appropriate and points out that the College doesn't get credit for well-handled cases because of confidentiality concerns.

"We can't shout out our successes," she says, adding that biggest problem she sees is student apathy.

But while using the Houses to address sexual harassment is a distinctively Harvard solution, the College also lacks some of the alternative forums present at other schools. Thus, Scheible says, House communities may be the best forums available.

"In this environment of decentralization, unless there is a safe center,' women's center,' or student center, I can't imagine a better place for our work to happen," she says. "As tutors, we live alongside students, and I think proximity and availability are the two most important criteria in determining a level' for SASH advising."

So what could convince Harvard to change its mind, providing more resources at a centralized level?"I think it will take some real student initiative," Avery says.