Coalition Defines Semester's Plans

After a quiet first semester of internal discussion, the Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV) is once again attempting to enter the public eye.

With a new, colorful poster campaign featuring messages such as "90% of All Rapes Are Never Reported" and "Rape Still Happens at Harvard" and other public actions, the group hopes to increase awareness of sexual violence and improve women's resources on the Harvard campus.

After last spring, when the group sponsored its annual "Take Back the Night" (TBTN) week, fought for increased training for Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment (SASH) counselors, and participated in a rally outside of a Faculty meeting, CASV has been much quieter this year.

"We want the dialogue to keep going," said Kaitlin McGaw '00, the coalition's co-chair. "We don't want the silence to come back on campus."

McGaw said a major goal of the group for the semester is developing a "progressive education program" to replace Peer Relations and Date Rape Education (PRDRE), the student-run presentation on sexual violence currently given during first-year orientation.

McGaw said PRDRE, which takes place in auditoriums of 500 first-years, does not go into enough depth to change behavior and attitudes about gender.

"Other organizations in Boston that work to educate youth about sexual violence target gender roles as a way to affect change for perceptions and gender relations," McGaw wrote in an e-mail message.

The program Harvard favors does not devote enough time or a personalized setting for students, she added.

"Currently Harvard's education system that does address rape is not necessarily a means to reach an end of a violence-free society," McGaw wrote. "The administration needs to recognize that this dialogue is essential, and that the education that we develop should be challenging and mandatory for all first-years."

For the past several months, CASV--which has between 15 and 20 active members--has been meeting internally and talking with PRDRE, according to Co-Chair Alexis B. Karteron '01.

With the posters and buttons that read "Rape Happens at Harvard," the group hopes to inaugurate a more visible role on campus as it tries to raise awareness and remind people that sexual violence remains a critical issue, Karteron said.

"This year...there's been much less attention given to the issue," she said.

As part of its efforts, the group will meet with Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 and Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87, host "Take Back the Night" week in April, and continue its efforts to centralize women's resources on campus.

Karteron said Kate Koestner, who gives speeches against sexual violence across the country, will be a featured speaker at the TBTN rally.

"We're excited about having her come here," she said.

McGaw said a campus women's center still remains a long-range goal.

Reaching that point, however, will be difficult. Last spring, Lewis said the College would not address the issue of a women's center.

"It is our stance that all of Harvard belongs to all the students, and the creation of a separate space for women (or for minority students) would institutionalize the notion that the rest of Harvard does not fully belong to them," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message last spring.

Karteron said administration relations are the same they have always been, as CASV tries to persuade the officials of the College that better resources for women are needed.

"They've committed into looking into [our ideas], but haven't committed to change anything in recent times," she said.