A January 21 trial date has been set in a 1981 $300,000 lawsuit by a former employee charging Harvard with sexual harassment and discrimination.

Charlotte A. Walters was employed by Harvard's Buildings and Grounds Department as a property maintenance worker and crew chief from 1979 to 1981.

Walters claims her male co-workers harassed her verbally and that she received unfair treatment from the University when she complained.

In one incident a co-worker threw a lit firecracker at her which temporarily impaired her hearing, she said.

"It kept grinding me down," Walters said yesterday. "I had gone through the proper channels all the way up to President Bok's office.

Harvard General Counsel Daniel Steiner said that the University had filed a response which denied all charges but could not comment further.

"I still feel the atmosphere is ripe for these problems...in essence it's ignored," Walters said. As part of her lawsuit, Walters demands that procedures and guidelines be established regarding sexual harassment.