Sexual Harassment

While most experts agree that harassment can be directed at both men and women, all of the complaints received in the past few years by the College's sexual harassment hearing officer have been made by women.

Teaching fellows are most frequently implicated in cases of harassment, says Lisa I. Backus '86, a Response counselor. Because of the typically small age gap between graduate students and undergraduates, the line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior is often blurred, and teaching fellows often do not realize the power they hold over their students, Backus says.

But it was the sexual harassment cases involving three esteemed senior faculty members that focussed nationwide attention on Harvard. All three cases implicated tenured professors of government, and all three resulted in official censure. The latest of the three cases, which became public through an extraordinary statement released by Harvard in February 1985, resulted in the extremely rare resignation of a tenured professor.

An earlier case--which became public in 1983 and which resulted in the punishment of another government professor for sexually harassing a junior faculty member in his department--prompted the University to refine its definition of sexual harassment and to revise and publicize its procedures for handling such misconduct. The University presently defines sexual harassment as "unwanted sexual behavior such as physical contact or verbal comments or suggestions, which adversely affects the working or learning environment of an individual."

Still, the Government Department has seen the number of females accepting offers of graduate admission drop significantly within the last three years, at least in part, Chairman Robert D. Putnam admits, because of the harassment cases. Last fall, the department also had to battle a vigorous protest among students who believe they should not be forced to associate in any way, either in the classroom or before examination boards, with professors implicated for sexual misconduct.

But administrators are somewhat hopeful that the new, clarified procedures, as well as the greater acceptance of sexual harassment as a valid complaint, have helped make students more willing to report sexual harassment incidents to the University. A report released in September revealed a rise in the number of cases reported to University officials, but the officials say it is impossible to determine whether this trend reflects increased awareness or an actual increase in sexual harassment incidents themselves.

The annual report, which tallies complaints from students at the College and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, revealed that two students had filed formal sexual harassment complaints (in which they officially asked the University to reprimand the accused offenders) during the 1984-85 academic year. It also revealed that during that same year, 56 others asked University officials for advice about a sexual harassment problem.

The report, prepared by the Coordinating Committee on Sexual Harassment, lamented that only a fraction of sexual harassment victims ask the University to intervene on their behalf. It also expressed concerns over what it termed "serious problems" of sexual harassment by peers.

A 1983 survey on sexual harassment revealed that 34 percent of undergraduate women had experienced some form of sexual harassment, loosely defined as anything from lewd jokes and suggestive comments to unwanted touching or rape. A subsequent survey, which used a stricter definition of harassment, revealed a much smaller percent.

Officials say they cannot pinpoint a cause for sexual harassment, but most admit it is more common than the few reported cases would suggest. Honnet attributes the problem at least in part to the dearth of tenured women and, by extension, strong female presence at Harvard, where fewer than 25 out of 350 senior professors are women.

But scholars agree that Harvard's willingness to handle the cases involving its senior professors in a public fashion has made the problem appear more common here than at other Universities. They say the problem is widespread, and that few scholars consider the three publicized harassment cases a reflection on the quality of Harvard's academic programs.

Eating Problems

Officials say the number of students coming to Harvard with eating problems is on the rise, and that an overwhelming 90 to 95 percent of them are women. In response to the trend, which parallels that at other schools nationwide, Harvard students three years ago began a counseling service in the basement of Memorial Hall to help students who are preoccupied with their weight.

Eating Problems Outreach (EPO) handles anonymous calls from students suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia and other eating disorders. Those with anorexia, which has been recognized since the Middle Ages, are preoccupied with dieting and lose at least 25 percent of their original body weight yet still see themselves as fat. Bulimia, only recently recognized as a disorder and more difficult to detect, involves a cycle of binging and self-induced purging.