A "member of the Harvard community" was raped Friday night, Deane W. Lord, director of Information, said last night.

Lord, saying that the victim did not want any information about the crime made public, refused to specify the time or the exact location of the rape, but said it occurred off campus, near the Square.

Both the Cambridge and Harvard Police are working on the crime, Lord said. Spokesmen for both police departments last night said that no information is available.

Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for Administration and chairman of the Committee to Study Violent Crimes at Harvard, said yesterday that serious crimes in the Harvard community are handled through the Office of Community and Government Affairs. Lord said that someone connected with the office is always on call to deal with emergencies, and that she was the person on call on Friday night.

She said that President Horner was also contacted about the rape on Friday.

Rosanne Kumins, assistant to the director of the Center for Criminal Justice and a member of the crime committee's subcommittee on women, said yesterday that when an assault occurs against a woman connected with the University, the Harvard Police contact either her or Horner.

"We go and help in any way we can," Kumins said. "We wait with her, or sit with her. It's important that there be somebody there when she's being questioned by the police."

Marti McDaniel, a staffer at the Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge, said last night that the center knows that there are several rapists who regularly "work the Harvard Square area."

Last October an unidentified assailant attempted to rape a Radcliffe student in Kirkland House