New Policy Tackled Harassment at Harvard

When the class of 1983 first arrived on campus, Harvard’s new sexual harassment policy had yet to be implemented.

“No one knew what the words [sexual harassment] meant when I was a sophomore,” said Victoria L. Eastus ’83, a member of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS).

But it wasn’t long before one student stepped forward and tested the process: the University’s first reported case of sexual harassment of a student by a professor occurred in 1979, when Government professor Martin L. Kilson allegedly made advances toward Helene S. York ’83.

York described the encounter as the culmination of unwanted overtures throughout the semester. She immediately reported the incident to Judith B. Walzer, assistant dean of the college for co-education, who walked her through the new grievance process.

“I had no idea I was the first person using that procedure,” York said.

In the wake of another case three years later, Harvard worked to define a policy for addressing future cases—but this process served to further complicated the issue.

The incident came to light when a sophomore student reported that visiting professor Derek Walcott, who later won a Nobel Prize, repeatedly propositioned her the previous spring. The student, who remained anonymous the entire time, sought a regrade for the C she received in Walcott’s poetry class.

An administrator close to the situation said that this case was neither the reason for the policy development nor the first incident of its kind, but it was unique in that the victim was willing to make her story heard. Before the 1970s, sexual harassment was not a widely-discussed topic, and thus no real Harvard policy was ever created.

“The rules were just being made up as we went along,” said Adam S. Cohen ’84.

The policy development process was complicated by attempting to define harassment. Then-Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky said he considered amorous relations between students and faculty to be inappropriate in all cases, regardless of consent.

Director of Admissions Marlyn E. McGrath ’70 said the new policy addressed situations of “asymmetry of authority” in personal relationships.

“We were concerned that the junior member of such a pair not be disadvantaged,” said McGrath, who was formerly an assistant dean of the College and handled sexual harassment complaints.

The new policy mandated that reported instances of sexual harassment would be reviewed by the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The issue gained attention at a time when women were part of both Radcliffe and Harvard. RUS President Elisabeth M. Einaudi ’83 said that Radcliffe provided additional persuasive power within the Harvard administration.

Eastus, who was instrumental in the student push for policy changes, said members of RUS believed their work made a mark on Harvard’s sexual harassment procedures.

“We definitely felt that Harvard accepted that this was an issue and ultimately did start to deal with it,” she said.

—Staff writer Chelsea L. Shover can be reached at clshover@fas.harvard.edu.