New guards learn the job requirements while working with veteran guards during those six months, and they are closely watched by supervisors.

In recent years, the annual training sessions have devoted more time to issues of sensitivity. During this year's session, many guards say ears perked up when Kevin Bryant, a Black patrol officer, talked about race relations with the guards.

"The last few years, they've stressed sensitivity," say one veteran guard. "I don't know if it's management's decision, or pressure from the University."

All told, guards say the training program in recent years has devoted from three to four hours to sensitivity issues.

While Harvard's growing emphasis on sensitivity training is consistent with national trends, industry experts say the University's approach may not go far enough.

One senior official at a national law enforcement training program, Jacob Haber, says universities should require a minimum of 24 hours of training on cultural diversity--eight times what Harvard currently offers.

"Law enforcement officers must be aware that in the community they will happen upon people different than themselves," says Haber, whose program is based at the University of Delaware. "Too many problems result from misunderstanding."

In addition, Harvard's system of training security guards differs from procedures at other Ivy League universities. The University's security guard division--which employs 108 guards, a quarter of which are minorities--is also much larger those at other schools.

Although the annual training program at Brown University also lasts a week, the 20 guards there receive police training, which includes instruction in handcuffing and the use of Mace, according to Brown Police Sgt. Steven St. Jean.

St. Jean said sensitivity training is included in the 40-hour training sessions. He said Brown guards and police officers meet frequently with other groups on campus, including minorities and gays.

Cornell does not employ any security guards. Instead, it uses police officers to carry out duties that at Harvard would be performed by guards, according to Cornell training coordinator Phil Mospan.

Cornell officers must undergo 40 weeks of training before they may begin work, Mospan said.

Mospan said his approach to sensitivity training is much different than Harvard's. Instead of holding department dominated sensitivity sessions, Mospan said he sends "four or five officers at a time" to university-wide workshops where they interact with members of the Cornell community.

"If you give them training as a group, they'll tend to band together and resist," Mospan said.

Mospan said that in his two years on the job, none of Cornell's 41 police officers have been charged with harassment of any kind. Seventy-five percent of the university's police have taken special day-long courses in sexual harassment and cultural awareness, Mospan said.