The Faculty Council was presented with Harvard's 1993 sexual harassment statistics Wednesday. But even though the number to formal complaints filed decreased last year, council members still aren't happy.

A dwinding number of formal charges doesn't necessarily indicate that the problem is going away, said Professor of Chinese History Peter K. Bol, a council member.

"We simply don't know what the relationship is between formal complaints and actual behavior," he said.

Some council members appear to believe a lack of familiarity with the complaint procedure is responsible for the paucity of formal sexual harassment charges in 1993.

And some administrators suggest that inconsistent and insufficient discipline may explain the artificially low number of complaints.

According to Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox Jr. '59, council members expressed concern at Wednesday's meeting that some formal complaints, of which there only "a handful" last year, may not be filed because students and faculty don't understand the process for doing so.

Fox said the discussion focused on the need for effective dissemination ofinformation regarding the University policy onsexual harassment.

"Nobody knows who knows what" about policy, BolSaid. "And there aren't a lot of ways for councilmembers to find out.

Currently, the University distributes itssexual harassment policy to all incoming studentsand asks that academic departments emphasize theissue at one departmental meeting in the fall ofeach year.

"It's almost impossible to tell whether whatwe're doing now is enough or bordering on toomuch," Bol said.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles says theFaculty Council reaffirmed previous directives todepartments to emphasize the "seriousimplications" of the policy early in each academicyear.

Knowles adds that the council discussed whetherthe initial sexual harassment policy mailing tograduate students should be repeated when thestudents become teaching fellows.

But such repetition may not be the answer, someUniversity officials say.

"I would guess thatfor the most part, members of the Harvardcommunity are familiar with our policy, and peoplewho don't follow it either know they aren't or arein a gray area where their transgressions areunintentional," says Assistant Dean forCo-Education Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78.

"I also think that most students know where toturn first when they are faced with a situationthat makes them uncomfortable," Mackay-Smith adds."People do know what the procedures are."

But whether people know the procedures forcomplaints in asymmetrical relationships or not,the results of following procedure are oftenunknown or at least unpredictable.