A little over a year ago, on December 7, 1988, a woman was raped in her Science Center office. It was late afternoon.

The immediate response was anger. Women were angry that the campus--their campus--had been violated. They organized a rally in support of the woman. They protested, they demanded more security.

But there was fear, too. The fear that is more intangible than protest rallies or committees on security. The fear that comes with knowing, realizing, that women are not safe. Fear of knowing that even an office in the middle of the day in a building bustling with comings and goings is not safe.

Later, in the weeks and months that followed, the rape did not disappear. Its memory remained in the endless Undergraduate Council debates about how to improve security. It lived on in the faces of the uniformed security guards who arrived at the Science Center. And in the 2 a.m. phone calls to the escort service, made by women who would no longer walk alone.

When campus women's groups rallied in support of the rape survivor, they presented a list of demands, asking the University to improve security, insure a safe women's center and start a program of rape prevention.

But today, more than a year after the rape, those demands for a safer, more secure campus remain illusory, partially fulfilled at best.

There are still complaints that the escort services on campus are largely inaccessible, that much of campus is still poorly lit and that women are still afraid in a campus that is supposed to be their home.

And a survey conducted by the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) this fall showed that female undergraduates continue to list campus safety as their first concern.

A meeting this week provided yet another reminder of how intractable the security issues raised by the rape are. At a Committee on College Life (CCL) gathering Monday, the topic was campus security and its inadequacies. Representatives from the Women's Alliance, the student-run escort service SafeStreets, the Undergraduate Council ad hoc committee on campus security and the Harvard University Police Department debated the issue.

They agreed there was much to be done.

But things have happened, of course. The immediate aftershocks in the community were tangible, and the reactions, like the Science Center rally, were obvious. The community became something like a rape victim itself. It expended energy rebuilding its sense of security.

The biggest changes made, according to the leaders of campus women's groups, were the introduction last March of a student-run foot patrol escort service, SafeStreets, and the acquisition of another car this year for the administration-sponsored escort service.

The police, too, say the rape caused them to look more closely at whether the campus was safe for undergraduates.

"Since [the rape], there have been a lot of committees, a lot of introspection into security," says Harvard Deputy Police Chief Jack W. Morse.

The most immediate security changes took place in the Science Center. Student guards were replaced by uniformed University guards. These guards patrol the center 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. every weekday, all day during weekends, holidays and vacations, according to Assistant Director of the Science Center John B. Mathers. The guards also check for University identification, and access to the upper floors is limited.