Under heavy pressure from student groups, Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 commissioned a task force two years ago to formulate a policy on date rape.

Numerous committee meetings and seemingly endless rounds of campus controversy later, the Date Rape Task Force garnered a less than lukewarm response to its proposed definition for date rape this week. And rejection of the definition, which states that sex with a "lack of consent" constitutes rape, means that the Task Force's efforts may simply result in maintaining the status quo.

On Monday, the Date Rape Task Force's definition received a forceful rejection from the Administrative Board. The Ad Board also narrowly rejected the Task Force's suggested "peer dispute sub-committees," which would have ended the Ad Board's sole control of date rape hearings by allowing student participation.

On Wednesday, the Faculty Council hinted it would adopt an alternative definition similar to one proposed by the Undergraduate Council.

And in an Ad Board memo obtained by The Crimson, Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 added another voice to the debate, calling the proposed definition "either impractical or inappropriate as a disciplinary standard."

A source familiar with the Ad Board's deliberations said Jewett also expressed his preference for a definition similar to the Undergraduate Council's.

"The Board favors a standard that requires students to respect a part- ner's `no,'" Jewett wrote in the memo.

The Undergraduate Council's report on the issuestates that date rape is "sexual intercourse thatoccurs despite the expressed unwillingness of thevictim"--a definition close to the laws ofMassachusetts.

The "expressed unwillingness" definition marksa turn toward the conventional and seems tocontradict the College's goal of establishing astandard more stringent than that of the law.

But it represents only the beginning ofdiscussion. A committee of Task Force members,Undergraduate Council representatives and otherinterested students still need to hammer out apolicy that will pacify student groups withdifferent interpretations of the issue.

Some of the remaining questions include theextent of a perpetrator's accountability when thevictim is intoxicated and the possibility ofcreating a separate standard for "sexualnegligence," as proposed by the UndergraduateCouncil.

The Task Force's definition of rape is "any actof sexual intercourse that occurs without theexpressed consent of the person, or is accompaniedby physical force or threat of bodily injury."

"Rape may also include intercourse when theperson is incapable of expressing or withholdingreasoned consent, or is prevented from resentingbecause of the intake of alcohol or drugs," thereport states.

The difficulty, University officials say, isthat Harvard's attempts at creating a morerigorous definition for date rape need to reflectexisting law.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles saidearlier this week that he hopes the issue does not"get lost in a discussion of terminology."

"It's very important the institution takes astand on these issues, and that the statement ismorally and legally defensible," Knowles said,echoing earlier statements by Jewett.