Handling Harassment

Return to main article:

Reviewing the evolution and enforcement of a sexual harassment policy for FAS in "Sex and Secrecy at Harvard College" (January-February 1992, page 67), author Edward L. Pattullo cited the Faculty Coordinating Committee on Sexual Harassment's 1990 report. It stated that sanctions in the nine formal cases brought in the preceding five years ranged from a cautionary letter, to unpaid leave, to "instructions that the individual have no further contact with...students, faculty or staff and no access to University property, and a required date of resignation was set." Pattullo noted that the very existence of such extreme cases is "made known only to those immediately involved, except...in annual reports available to faculty members on request but otherwise not circulated" to the College.

The committee's most recent report (for the 1995-96 academic year) lists 11 instances of "informal intervention" and 22 instances of "direct advice" (discussion of the incident and possible courses of action) resulting from officer-undergraduate encounters. Peer (student) contacts generated 1 formal complaint, 9 informal interventions, and 14 instances of direct advice. The report noted the assistant dean for coeducation's belief that "the continuing rise in these numbers does not reflect an increase in incidence so much as it does an increase in the awareness of and availability of the Adjunct Advisers, whom the students...seem more willing to approach for help."

Read more articles by Tara B. Purohit
Sub topics

You might also like

Small Talk, From Afar

Student ham enthusiasts turn back time.

Commencement and Alumni Events

Harvard Commencement and Alumni Events 2025

Harvard University’s 374th Commencement Excercises

Commencement and Alumni Day schedules

Most popular

Harvard Ramps Up Fundraising as Research Cuts Deepen

This week in the battle between Harvard and the Trump administration 

Harvard Responds to Protests

Smaller campus actions draw administrative and online responses.

Explore More From Current Issue

Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams at the Peabody Essex Museum

South Korean artist’s socially themed photographs at the Peabody Essex Museum

The Franklin Stove—A Historical Climate Change Adaptation

Historian Joyce E. Chaplin reinterprets an early era of invention, industrialization, and climate challenge

Biology's "Mirror Organisms"—And Their Dangers

Life forms built from left-handed DNA and RNA could threaten Earth’s plants, animals, and insects.