After experiencing what they described as "a blatant act of racially-motivated harassment" by a Cambridge police officer, three Harvard seniors on Tuesday demanded University action to prevent such incidents from recurring.

In a letter to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III detailing the incident, Nester Q. Clark '98, Byron L. Logan '98 and Jason D. Williamson '98 said they were harassed by an unidentified Cambridge police officer as they sat on the steps outside Claverly Hall at about 10:30 p.m. last Friday.

The letter said the officer demanded to know who the students were and why they were sitting in front of Claverly.

Cambridge Police Department Sergeant Les Sullivan said yesterday that he promises to look into the incident.

"I haven't heard about it, but I'll definitely be investigating," he said.

Epps also said he will be investigating the students' claims.

"I'm not at all pleased that students were harassed by the police," Epps said. "I'm going to look into this further."

On Saturday morning, the three students said they asked Adams House Assistant Senior Tutor Alvin B. Tillery for guidance.

Tillery, who has been a resident tutor in Claverly for four years, said he has seen incidents like this before.

"This has been a pattern of unacceptable behavior from the Cambridge police," Tillery said. "I know these students well and I doubt they were doing anything to attract police attention, aside from how they looked."

Tillery recalled an incident last year whenCambridge police ordered black sophomores to "goinside" and stop playing their music on the stepsof Claverly.

"I've seen white students playing guitar on thesteps of Claverly at three in the morning,"Tillery said. "This is a pattern, and it isdirectly related to who the police see outside."

Clark, Logan and Williamson said they areconsidering filing a class action lawsuit againstthe University if Harvard does not "take concreteaction to prevent this from happening again."Williamson, who is president of the Black StudentsAssociation (BSA), has pledged BSA support forsuch a lawsuit.

"This is a pervasive problem that most of theblack men on campus have dealt with," Clark said."I feel like the University hasn't made an effortto address this problem."

Clark said he would like to see the Universitytake steps to publicly address the problem ofpolice harassment.

"I would like to see the Cambridge police takenoff the Harvard beat," Clark said. "They don'tknow who the students are and that is the cause ofa lot of friction."