Police Didn't Inform Hall Of Kirkland Rape Attempt

An assailant nearly raped a Radcliffe student in Kirkland House Saturday night. Stephen S. J. Hall, vice president for administration and chairman of the Committee to Study Violent Crimes at Harvard, said yesterday he is angry because of the failure of the Cambridge Police to inform him of the attack.

Hall's committee will meet Wednesday to discuss whether further safety precautions should be taken at Harvard.

A man forced his way into the room of a Radcliffe student at Kirkland House around midnight Saturday and attempted to rape her. The assailant, however, fled when she began to scream.

Heard Nothing

Hall, when first contacted by The Crimson Monday about the incident, said he had heard nothing. "The Police Department is supposed to call me when things like this happen, but they didn't and I don't like it," Hall said.

"I'm surprised this happened because our security is much better than even last year," Hall said. "The guy must have been mentally deranged. Now the committee is going to have to decide what our points of concentration will be."

He said the meeting of the Committee to Study Violent Crimes will concentrate on four points:

* What the committee has done about plans made last spring to provide sufficient lighting for walkways, to install call-in boxes, and to launch an "awareness campaign."

* How Cambridge police view the current crime problem.

* What the committee should do in "attempting to guess what will happen next."

* The final selection of the new chief of University police.

Vogt Takes Steps

In response to Saturday night's attempted rape, Evon Z. Vogt, master of Kirkland House, said he has called a House Committee meeting for Tuesday night and an open meeting Wednesday night to discuss improving security at Kirkland House.

"We have to talk this thing through with the whole House; we need the whole House's support," Vogt said. "We have to help each other and be more vigilant."

"I think we should look into the number of policemen and security guards who are on duty at the River Houses," Vogt added.

Kirkland House, unlike most other houses, until now has not locked its entryways, Vogt said, but "now we must take a good look at what other houses are doing and come to some pretty fast conclusions."

Robert Tonis, chief of University police said yesterday that the Cambridge Police are working on Saturday night's case but have no suspects as yet.

According to the Boston Herald American, the police are not sure whether the rape attempt at Kirkland was committed by the same men who sexually assaulted two others in Cambridge this past weekend, but they are comparing the descriptions given by the three victims of their attackers.

A spokesman for the Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge who asked that her name not be used said that the number of rapes reported in the Harvard Square area is increasing. "The situation appears to be getting worse," she said.