Finally this year a new junior professor has been hired to teach the muchneeded women's history courses. But the message sent by the two-year hiatus couldn't be clearer: simply put, it isn't a priority here.

"ANONYMOUS was a woman," read one of the original slogans on the bathroom wall. After four years of a Harvard education, it would be easy to conclude such a thing; after four years as a reporter at The Harvard Crimson, it is also quite simple.

Creating a community based on women's history is not always possible at an institution--at any institution--which glosses over the contributions of women. For that reason, among others, women consistently find that they have a harder time making a place for themselves here, whether at student publications or in sections or as student leaders.

But still, hope cannot be completely consigned to the gradual process of building a history of women's accomplishments at Harvard. Rather, as women name themselves, give voice to their contributions, such a community can be made to flourish.

Tonight when I check the bathroom wall, some four months after its whitewashing, there is a new slogan written there. "Let's not let anonymous be a woman anymore," it says.

Susan B. Glasser '90 will write a column on women's issues this semester.