Peeping Toms Draw Concern at Law School

When Harvard Law School (HLS) student Rachel E. Morrisey e-mailed a dean in December to complain about unidentified males peeping in dorm bathrooms, she didn’t know she would initiate a change in the way the University responds to safety concerns.

The second-year law student met yesterday with HLS Dean of Students Ellen M. Cosgrove and Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers. It was the second in a series of meetings scheduled for this spring, and the latest step in Morrisey’s quest for heightened dorm security and better coordination.

The peeping incidents have been a concern for female HLS students since orientation week last fall, when the first of five—an unusually high number—occurred.

Morrisey is now the main liaison between the administration and the women she lives with in the Gropius Complex.

“So far, she’s accomplished getting their attention,” says Amal M. Bass, who lives on Morrisey’s floor and was the victim of the latest peeping incident in December. “Now they’re listening to us.”

UNWELCOME VISITORS

Gropius Complex, a cluster of five small dorms attached to HLS’s Harkness Commons, is the only spot on Harvard’s campus to report peeping incidents since September.

“Seeing this many peeping incidents in one time is an anomaly,” says HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano, adding that one to two per year is the norm.

The loudest call for action comes from the fourth floor of Gropius’ Story Hall, one of two all-female floors in the complex and the site of two of the five incidents.

“It’s something that a lot of people have been very upset about and complaining about,” Morrisey says.

After a man peeped at a woman showering in November, Bass says she became more cautious, gathering fellow students to venture to the bathroom with her.

But she was alone on Dec. 18, a Saturday during exam week when half the others on her floor had taken off for winter break. Bass had just studied for six hours and was relaxing with a late afternoon shower.

When she heard heavy, running footsteps, she says she didn’t suspect anything. “I was in another world,” she recalls.

But then she heard a friend yelling that there was a man in the bathroom. Bass ran into the hallway with just a towel.

After her friend called HUPD, the intruder peeked twice out of the bathroom door and ran toward the stairs, wearing just a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, Bass says.

Bass glimpsed three-quarters of his face, she says, and thought he might be a student from one of her large lecture courses—but the suspect has not yet been positively identified.

Two months later, Bass says she isn’t sure that catching him and other men who peep in bathrooms is her only aim.

“The point is not just to get him,” she says. She and Morrisey now have larger goals.

WORKING FOR CHANGE

After hearing the stories of Bass and the other women in the complex, Morrisey volunteered to e-mail Cosgrove in December.

After an earlier meeting between administrators, police, and students after Bass’ peeping incident, HLS Facilities had installed a swipe card reader to restrict access to the fourth floor bathroom.

But Morrisey and the six other women working with her say they hope the latest series of meetings will bring about the sweeping changes they want: separate keys for different dorms in the Gropius complex, faster responses from HUPD, and improved coordination between HUPD and HLS.

The women say that HUPD issues alerts too infrequently and too late. But each incident requires a different reaction, says Catalano, who issues the alerts. The third incident in September and the last in December occurred just days or weeks after alerts had been sent.

“We felt that the advisory that was out there still got the message out...on what precautions students should take to deal with these incidents,” Catalano said. “There was really no new information to present except that another incident had occurred.”

HUPD also chose not to perform the fingerprinting that Bass says she requested after the December incident.

“We made a mistake, but it’s not a fatal mistake,” Catalano says, adding that the surface wasn’t ideal for fingerprinting.

Morrisey also says that Cosgrove should be better informed about peeping incidents so she can take the lead in responding.

Cosgrove was so swamped with meetings with Story Hall residents yesterday—“an emergency,” she said—that she couldn’t comment to The Crimson.

Morrisey calls yesterday’s meeting “productive,” and Catalano agrees. Cosgrove will meet today with victims of peeping incidents, and on Monday with Morrisey’s group to chart a course of action.

Still, no suspects have been identified.

“At this point in time, the investigation is inactive until a suspect can be identified and a positive identification can be made,” Catalano said. “Fortunately, we haven’t had an incident in two months, and we hope that that continues.”

—Staff writer April H.N. Yee can be reached at aprilyee@fas.harvard.edu.