In May of 1991, L. Dodge Ferruled Jr., the assistant dean of the Extension School, wrote a desperate memorandum to his boss, Michael Shinagel.

"I write...with a sense of despair concerning the work environment of my supervisee, Delise Battenfield," Fernald said in the memo to Shinagel, dean of the Extension School and Quincy House master.

"There has been sexual harassment by a research advisor," the memo continues. "This problem has existed for several months and [Battenfield] has tried to tolerate it."

The memo goes on to ask Shinagel for an investigation of the harassment, but no such probe ever occurred.

Three years later, that memo has become an important piece of a sexual harassment lawsuit field by M. Delise Battenfield, a former Extension School student and employee, against the research advisor--Donald Ostrowski--and Harvard University.

Battenfield, a student and administrative assistant in the Extension School's master's program, alleges that Ostrowski, who coordinated students' research in the program and served as her husbands thesis adviser, sexually harassed her and other women at the school. Ostrowski has denied those charges.

But the memo buttresses an even more damaging contention of the Battenfield case: Extension school officials--including Shinagel--Knew about the allegations of harassment, and did nothing to fix the situation.

The University has fought this charge, using avariety of legal arguments and even Battenfield'smedical records from the University healthServices. and Harvard won a minor legal victorylast year when a Middle-sex County judge dismissedsome allegations in the civil suit.

Still, court documents in the case, which isscheduled to go to a trial in Middlesex CountyCourt on June 6, raise questions about how wellthe school responds to sexual harassmentcomplaints and treats employees and students.

For example, Fernald's memo charges that SueWeaver Schopf, coordinator of research advisorsfor the Extension School's master's program,verbally harassed Battenfield and broke promise ofconfidentiality to the student.

Neither the plaintiffs nor Extension Schoolofficials agreed to be interviewed for this story.Ostrowski and Shinagel did not return repeatedphone calls to their offices, and Shinagel wouldnot answer questions when reached at his residenceyesterday.

But depositions, affidavits, motions and, mostof all, internal Extension School memoranda painta stark--if incomplete--picture of the case.

One document that could become vital to thecase's outcome is another memo found in ExtensionSchool files. This letter, which was attached tothe Fernald memo, is not signed, but the documentwas sent to Shinagel and appears to have beenpenned by a school official.

"Is Delise aware that she has grounds to sueHarvard for megabucks?" it reads. "Not just anindividual for possible sexual harassment, but theUniversity (Extension School) for fostering aclimate of emotional harassment.

"I'd tell her to take a leave-of-absence,rather than leaving the Universityunconditionally; she needs some good advice (haveshe and her husband talked with a lawyer?), bothto preserve her rights and status as a Harvardemployee, as a Harvard degree-candidate, and,frankly, as a human being."

A Kiss?