Room 13 does not catch everyone's attention. It is sunken in a corner of Harvard Yard and what goes on inside remains hidden unless you, too, take the plunge.

Inside "the Room," a confidential peer counseling service, are comfy couches, cookies and two Harvard students willing to listen. And unless the cookies talk, nothing you say will leave the Room.

"It's often hard for people here to take time out to talk about what they're going through or tell other people what they're going through," says Elisabeth Marks '98'99. "Because Room 13 is a space separate from all the stresses it's a really nice space to have."

Marks, who co-directs Room 13 with Lara L. Glass '00, says anonymity is the keystone of the group's philosophy. Staff members asked not to be interviewed by The Crimson because, as a group, they decided "it would be harmful for students to form too much of a defined perception of us and what we do," Marks explained.

Now is the time, though, to learn about the Room. The group is now conducting interviews for next year's staff, and spots are still available.

But if you would rather talk than listen, the Room is there for you. The largest challenge for staff, Marks says, is making their space attractive to all.

"I played with the idea of coming down here," she says of her first year at Harvard, now sitting in the Room. "I was never able to use it but wish that I had."

Cookies, Condoms and Conversation

Room 13 is a couple of rooms tucked in the basement of Grays Hall. Beyond a door off the small hallway are several classrooms.

But since the Room is open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., there is no fear for invasion of privacy from a tutorial or Ec 10 section.

A table with a basket full of condoms sits in the hall where anyone entering easily spot them.

The rooms in the Room are furnished with comfortable, 1970s-style couches, coffee tables and bookshelves filled with counseling pamphlets and books.

And, Marks says, "We do have cookies."

Seven nights a week, two staff members in the Room--one man and one woman--spend the night prepared for calls or drop-in visits.

Some visitors prefer to speak to either a man or a woman, Glass says, adding that staff members "want people to be as comfortable as possible." This policy also helps preserve anonymity.