During Tuesday's Faculty debate about punishment for D. Drew Douglas, Class of 2000, Faculty members said no one had any trouble calling it rape.

What some did have trouble with, Faculty in attendance said, was determining degrees of consent and miscommunication between Douglas and the woman he assaulted last spring.

In particular, some still had questions about the force with which the woman refused Douglas' advances--whether she sent nonverbal signals which may have blurred any clear message about consent.

But, according to court documents obtained yesterday by The Crimson, there seems to be little doubt about the events of last April 4.

Statements by a Middlesex County prosecutor--to which Douglas pled guilty under oath--show Douglas forced his way into the woman's room and onto her bed before the assault.

Instead of "miscommunication," the court documents reveal a situation in which the woman continually told Douglas to leave her House, her suite and her bed. Before entering her room, Douglas "slammed her against the wall" and began kissing her, even though she "told him to leave [and] was struggling to get away from him." His advances continued even as she repeatedly told Douglas to leave and tried to push him off her bed.

Douglas pled guilty to indecent assault and battery in Middlesex Superior Court on Sept. 24, 1998. Before the case went to court, the Administrative Board determined that a rape had occurred and recommended dismissal to the Faculty.

Douglas was also indicated in Middlesex Superior Court on one count of rape, though that charge was placed on hold. But even in convicting him of the lesser charge of indecent assault and battery, the court documents paint a story without the ambiguities that were raised during Tuesday's Faculty meeting.

Faculty Debate

The full Faculty voted by a wide margin todismiss Douglas, with 19 voting against and over100 for dismissal.

Some professors advocated a requirement towithdraw for five years--a lesser punishment thandismissal because students who withdraw are moreoften allowed to return to Harvard.

Some of those who proposed withdrawal "weremainly concerned with the problem of communicationbetween the two students involved in the case,"said Judith L. Ryan, Weary professor of German andcomparative literature.

"There was a discussion of mitigatingcircumstances--the possibility of miscommunicationand the admission [of guilt to the woman heassaulted and the Administrative Board]," Ryansaid.

Faculty Council members had the opportunity toreview Ad Board files about the case before votingto recommend dismissal. One council member saidTuesday the council had been unanimously fordismissal before reading the documents, but after,five supported withdrawal instead.

In addition, one senior administrator said thatan article in Tuesday's Boston Globe wasreferenced during the debate, which was closed tothe public.

That article stated that, before the assault,"the two students were lying in bed for about fourhours. They had been friends for some time, andhad been drinking for much of the evening."