The prominence of such issues as sexual harassment and race relations this year has caused Harvard's several undergraduate peer counseling groups to expand their focuses in response to student needs.

Room 13, the oldest of the counseling groups which originated as a center to get help with drug problems in the early 1970s, is launching a program next year designed to foster discussion on race relations in the Houses, says staffer Herbert L. Watkins '85.

After determining that few minority students use their service, staffers have decided to hold small discussion groups in Houses on race relations.

In contrast to Room 13, which handles a variety of personal problems, the Eating Problems Outreach Group (EPO) started to fill a specific need. The group, which deals with "food issues intertwined with other aspects of life," according to staffer Marsha Rorty '85, showed a film in December called "I Don't Have to Hide," a story about a bulimic woman. In April it brought the theater group "Food Fright" to Harvard for a "humorous but very moving account of eating disorders," says Rorty, and sponsored a five hour workshop on eating concerns.

Next year, Rorty adds, the group will try to give presentations to proctorial units and women's tables as well.

In the wake of recent controversy surrounding Harvard's sexual harassment policy. Response--a peer group which counsels victims of harassment--this year conducted "educational work shops on the issues of rape and harassment," says codirector Sharon Reiss '84-85.

Representatives of Response--whose office is in Lowell House--visited dorms. Houses, and other organizations this year, and next fall. Reiss says, the group hopes to give presentations to faculty members as well, because these people may be "in contact with students who might want to avail themselves of the services of Response."

Similarly, Peer Contraceptive Counseling this year began its freshman outreach program, discussing birth control with freshman proctoral units. Stephanie R. Dickerson '86, student coordinator of the group, adds that issues such as the recent Pi Eta newsletter help spark more general discussion as well.

Another sign of the groups' higher visibility is the increasing number of calls, all confidential, which the groups are receiving. Elizabeth B. Simmons '85, codirector of Response, says that her organization received 48 percent more calls this spring than it did last fall. "This is a mark of success, that more people trust us enough to call," she added.

Not only are people using the services, but many actually want to become staffers. According to Room 13 codirector Ellen D. Devere '84, her group received more than 130 applicants for the roughly 20 available spots. Members of Response say they also are besieged by applicants.

Why the interest? "These are issues that affect many people on campus in many ways," said Response's Reiss, adding that the staffers also derive support from one another.

Counselors at University Health Services (UHS) and the Bureau of Study Counsel stress the growing importance of peer counseling groups. Nadja B. Gould, a clinical social worker at UHS who supervises those groups, calls them "a resource that does not exist anywhere else in the University."

The groups "provide an opportunity for students who don't want to come to the Health Services for counseling, who don't have problems serious enough to go to a professional," to talk to someone who will "understand and listen," explains Gould.

M. Suzanne Repetto, senior counselor at the Bureau of Study Counsel and supervisor for EPO and Room 13, notes that after the recent suicides at Harvard, peer support services were especially helpful Room 13 in particular "rescued [some] students reacting to the suicides with depressed feelings," she adds.

Both Gould and Repetto say that the support groups also provide a link between students and the official University counseling services. All of the peer groups refer people to UHS and the Bureau when they feel students have a problem which they cannot handle. The process works in reverse as well: the professional counselors sometimes refer students to their peers.

Group members say that keeping the organization operating isn't an easy task. "You need persistence," says EPO's Rorty. "The process of getting started, gaining credence and support, getting money--it happens, but it takes time."

Yet the staffers say they are dedicated to their work, and cite their growing outreach programs as evidence. As Room 13's Devere says, "The more people who know about Room 13, the better I feel."