At Kirkland, Taking It Slow

Crime, especially in a community like Harvard where these aren't supposed to happen, has a way of making people do something about it.

This week Kirkland House, which avoided the rush two years ago to lock House gates and entry-way doors, began considering tighter security measures following the attempted rape of a House resident last weekend.

Meetings among Kirkland House members this week produced little enthusiasm for locking entry-way doors, however, and residents will be polled next week on this question.

Instead there appeared to be consensus on improving the lighting both inside and outside House entires and on installing a student checker at the Kirkland gate who could admit people into the House with a buzzer similar to the system at Currier House.

"There's a tradition of visiting freely within the House," Kirkland Co-Master Evon Z. Vogt said yesterday. "Unless there's a fair consensus [for locking entry doors], people can always open the doors. We want to carry the House along with our security plans so that they will be adhered to."

Despite rumors of other recent rape attempts within the University, Robert Tonis, chief of University Police, said yesterday that none has been reported.

Rosanne Kumins, assistant to the director of the Center for Criminal Justice, conducted a study last year on crimes against women and said last night that while the study was not statistically valid, it "gave us the impression that most serious crimes are reported."