Woman Groped Outside Hillel

A woman was groped late last night outside of the Harvard Hillel building.

The groping, which follows a spate of 12 gropings around campus last fall and winter, took place within a block of the Harvard police substation located at nearby Quincy House.

Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) and Cambridge Police Department responded to the call at approximately 12:56 a.m.

The suspect was described as a stocky black male, around 6 feet tall with a gray hooded sweatshirt, according to reports sent over a HUPD radio channel.

Officers from the two departments searched the Harvard Square area, but had turned up no one meeting the suspect’s description as of 2 a.m. last night.

Though HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano could not be reached for comment early this morning, an HUPD officer on the scene said that the unidentified victim was in good condition. Officers would not say whether the victim was a Harvard student.

HUPD Watch Commander Sgt. William McNamara confirmed that the groping had occurred and said it was under investigation.

This groping is the first of the academic year. After the rash of gropings last year, the College created the Harvard University Campus Escort Program to replace SafetyWalk, a defunct late-night escort system that could no longer provide staffing when students called for company walking home.

The gropings also helped convince Harvard and Cambridge to agree to install blue light call boxes in Cambridge Common, where one incident took place last year. The callboxes have not yet been installed.

The escort program, which can be reached at 617-384-8237, is available from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Teams of police continued to patrol the Square area last night as they searched for the groper.

—Hana R. Alberts contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Jonathan P. Abel can be reached at abel@fas.harvard.edu.