"We want to try to improve the overall environment," says McCarthy. "The gender equity culture is less hospitable to sexual harassment."

One of the primary ways in which the administration is trying to eradicate the "culture" that is friendly to sexual harassment is through education of teaching fellows and course assistants in all undergraduate classes.

James E. Davis, lecturer on biochemistry, expects his teaching aides to adhere closely to Harvard's policy on unprofessional conduct, according to many of his teaching fellows and course assistants.

At the beginning of the semester, Davis makes sure all his graduate and undergraduate teachers understand the guidelines.

"I come right out and say it," Davis says. "There's no intercourse with people in your course."

The Harvard policy also prohibits romantic relationships among tutors and house residents. "Under no circumstances must a resident tutor be involved in any way with a student because there's an unequal power equation and, therefore, it's inappropriate," says Deborah Foster, Currier House senior tutor and lecturer in folklore and mythology.

If a relationship does develop, however, the tutor is generally asked to change houses, Foster says.

But despite the guidelines and reprimands students and instructors face, students say that sometimes true love cannot be held back, even if it does originate in an inappropriate context.

One student said he and his Core class teaching fellow developed a mutual interest in the middle of one semester. Although they wanted to begin dating, they waited until reading period to see each other on a regular basis.

"We knew we were attracted to each other and before the final exam, she asked me out," the student says. "I didn't see anything wrong with it and the grade issue didn't seem a big one."

The student said nobody in the section knew about the relationship.

"I don't think it adversely affected anyone's grade and I don't think anyone thought there was any impropriety going on," he says.

But several administrators say that other students in such classes are unavoidably affected by a relationship that forms within the class.

"There is a perceived bias by the other students," says Gill, who says students often feel as though "they will somehow be evaluated differently."

The Coordinating Committee's main focus for the coming year will be on education and on increasing awareness among both faculty and students of all degrees of sexual harassment issues.

"We're trying to be more proactive," says McCarthy. "We've been making progress, but we're not satisfied."