However, a large number of female students claimed not to drink excessive amounts of alcohol.

Although Melissa A. Rosato '97 was surprised to see so much drinking when she got to Harvard, she has never found the need to drink to have a good time. "I figure I'm better off if I don't get into the habit," she said.

Vanessa W. Liu '96 only drinks champagne when she goes out to eat. "I don't like the taste of beer," she said.

Liu also said that drinking depends more on personality than on gender. "Some people come from backgrounds where drinking was in and it's their outlet," she said.

Harvard has provided students with several outlets for counseling, but has yet to deal with what many experts feel to be the increasing drinking problem on campus. There are currently no counseling groups dedicated towards treatment of student drinkers and there are no programs specifically designed for women.

According to Dr. Randolph Catlin, chief of Mental Health Services at UHS, treatment is more on an individual basis. I have found that usually undergraduates don't take to groups well," he said.

Catlin also said that there is no group activity specially for women at the moment. "We don't have anything exclusively for women but it could be that this is something that we should be thinking about," he said. "There have been no investigations yet and we haven't gotten data that indicates that there would be a need for [all female group therapy]."

According to Mackay-Smith. Harvard presently has no groups devoted to treating alcohol problems because students often feel more comfortable using outside resources such as Cambridge Hospital.

The absence of counseling groups does not mean that the University does not have resources for dealing with alcohol abuse-- according to Catlin there are a few ways that UHS deals with drinking problems.

He said the staff of the mental health services have experience in threating people with problems of alcohol abuse. Most often Catlin said, alcohol related problems come to the notice of health official in under some other guise.

The Health Education Department too has programs for undergraduates in the houses or the dorms which include presenting skits and distributing brochures.

According to Gramarossa, the office of Health Education has a peer undergraduate group called project ADD, an education group for alcohol and drug dialogue. This group which it jointly runs with the Bureau of Study Counsel, is planning activities over March 13 to 18 to commemorate alcohol awareness week.

The activities will address the issue of how alcohol relates to risky acts like unprotected sex and date rape situations. Project ADD is also planning a joint program with the Calling it Rape group to help students deal with the aftermath a alcohol abuse.

The Office of Health Education is presently working on forming a psycho educational group for students who are identified through the Ad Board health services and advisors as at risk for alcohol problems.

Gramarossa said the issue of having a group for women has come up in discussion and that her office is exploring the possibilities of starting one.