The Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV) had the willing ears of administrators yesterday, as they discussed their concerns in their first official meeting with members of the Harvard College Dean's office this year.

CASV members said the time was right for an official meeting to start discussions with administrators that they hope will continue throughout the year.

"We're more focused this year," said Kaitlin McGaw '00, the coalition's co-chair. "There's more energy from new students."

Administrators were equally enthusiastic about the discussion.

"This kind of meeting is always a good chance to open up discussion between students and administrators," said Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87.

One of the major topics tackled was the safe community meetings first-years are required to attend. The meetings, which involve about 500 students in a Science Center auditorium, include presentations about rape.

"Being in a huge auditorium is not necessarily a safe environment to talk about rape," McGaw said.

"We were thinking of something similar to the diversity discussions," co-chair Alexis B. Karteron '01 said, referring to the more intimate meetings every proctor group has with a faculty member to talk about issues of diversity and tolerance.