A person in the negotiations of the personnel agreement says the numbers may have influenced Orren's support staff to eventually bring the complaint to fruition.

"Four staff members were all working in the Kennedy school and all of them had worked as a staff assistant for Gary Orren," the person says. "They got together and realized that they had very similar experiences. I think it was a powerful realization for all of them."

Barrios agrees that the number of assistants Orren's behavior affected influenced the eventual decision to file a complaint with the administration.

"After number five, we decided to take a different tack," Barrios says.

The person in negotiations of that agreement says those representing the staff members met with "the senior administration of the Kennedy School" to discuss possible courses of action, which included preventing Orren from hiring a staff to simply monitoring his behavior.

"At that time, our request was that there needed to be some kind of intervention," Barrios says. "This was a very painful experience for those women and me."

In a statement issued recently in response to questions from The Crimson, Orren says he recognized that his behavior toward staff was unacceptable and he took the complaints brought to administrators seriously.

"In a period from about six to 10 years ago, there were instances in which I lost my temper and was discourteous and rude to support staff," Orren wrote in a written statement. "There were complaints about this to the Kennedy School Administration. I took the complaints very seriously and acknowledged that my behavior was unacceptable."

The Agreement

The negotiations, which took place in May and June of 1989, led to the stipulation of detailed steps Orren is required to follow when hiring support staff, according to the person in negotiations.

The agreement had several provisions, including providing advance information or warning about problems that previous support staff had with Orren, guaranteeing reassignment without fear of job loss and monitoring Orren's behavior.

The person in negotiations says the advance warnings are "unusual" and that guaranteed employment is "not routine."

In his written statement, Orren says he has followed the terms of that agreement.

"In resolving these complaints, in 1990 it was agreed that I would inform future support staff in my office of the past incidents and give assurance that they would not be repeated," Orren wrote. "I have done so."

"I worked to correct the situations, and there have been no such complaints since then," he wrote.

An August, 1991, meeting, which a source said Carnesale attended, confirmed the that agreement was still in place.