The System

But both women say the services provided arejust as important as the type of counselingoffered.

"It is of the utmost importance that someonewho has been sexually assaulted have a positiveexperience the first time they are able to pick upthe phone and seek help," wrote the woman who wasassaulted by Douglas.

The woman whom Douglas sexually assaulted choseResponse as her initial contact following theincident.

"I called the hotline because I was on theverge of complete mental and emotional collapse,"she wrote. "I was hyperventilating and I needed totalk to someone who I knew would be experiencedand levelheaded enough to talk me down and give meadvice."

In an e-mail message to The Crimson, a memberof Response says the group takes different rolesin various students' healing processes. Responsedoes not approach police or administrationofficials with information of the incidentsdisclosed to them.

"We will not encourage someone to take legalaction if he or she does not want to," theResponse member wrote. "We will tell the callerthat if he or she might want to take legal actionlater, a rape kit could be very important now. Wecan explain the contents of a rape kit and whatthe process is like."

The woman assaulted by Douglas said the bestadvice Response gave her was directing to her"lifesaver"-Gould.

"She is trained to deal specifically withsurvivors of sexual assault, which was also nice.It was so important for me at that time to feelunderstood, and there were very few places atHarvard where I could relax, vent, cry," shewrote.

While Rosenthal and Gould maintain that UHS canprovide adequate counseling following the attackand in the long term, the woman assaulted byDouglas wrote that the person she talked to earlyin the morning left her on her own.

"They said they didn't provide transportation,and that I would have to go on my own," the womanwrote. "Not only are there no doctors to performrape kit exams, but there is no concern withgetting victims to a place where they can get arape kit done."

But the Coalition Against Sexual Violence sayssuch an approach is simply not enough. They hopetheir activities over Junior Parents' Weekend andthe scheduled rally outside Tuesday's Facultymeeting can encourage students to demand changeand parents to do the same.

"When [parents] get a letter asking for money,they can send a letter back saying, 'No, and thisis why,'" said one Coalition member at a meetingto plan tabling in front of the Science Center."The next time they get a phone call, they cantell the person on the line, 'No, and this iswhy.'