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.