And Kirkland House SASH adviser Nancy M. Puccinelli says that in addition to the meetings, Avery herself provides enough advice and is a "tremendous resource." Puccinelli says she contacts Avery to ask for advice whenever a student approaches her with a problem.

Although Puccinelli says she is open to trying the two-day training session, she questions the need for such a lengthy program. She says the monthly meetings are useful for ongoing feedback and that the room is generally full.

Still, SASH advisers say the coalition's outspoken protests prompted them at their last monthly session to evaluate their training. In an e-mail message, Dudley House SASH adviser Kristin J. Scheible called the meeting "particularly fruitful."

And Avery wrote in another e-mail message that the College "will try to implement some training for [SASH advisers] at the beginning of the year."

Anna M. Baldwin '00, one of the coalition members who attended the last meeting with the deans, says the College is making progress in reviewing the SASH system.

"I think that some of the recent events and some of the press coverage have made them a lot more receptive to examining Harvard's current resources and seeing ways that they could be improved," Baldwin says.

Sword says the coalition is addressing important issues, but adds that although the group is "motivated by reasonable concerns," Harvard's decentralization may make implementing certain ideas difficult.

"I'm not sure how to mesh the demands with my cynical view of Harvard realities," Sword says. "They're being ambitious--some of the places it looks like they didn't do their homework."

Next On The List

Beyond a women's center and improved SASH advising, coalition members have demanded other changes, most of which have not yet been formally discussed with administrators.

Specifically, the group has asked for a mandatory first-year orientation on issues of sexual violence; the inclusion of questions about sexual violence in student surveys; more rape aggression defense classes; the creation of a position for a full-time survivor advocate; and an academic commitment to studying gendered systems of violence.

And stemming from the days when the coalition was founded following last year's high-profile case of Joshua M. Elster, Class of 2000, the group has also asked that University policy should include mandatory expulsion of convicted rapists.

Elster, a former Kirkland House resident, pled guilty in September to raping a female undergraduate in February, 1998. While Elster's case has not yet appeared before the Faculty, the Ad Board has recommended that he be dismissed.

Coalition members argued that a student who rapes another student should be expelled--forced to completely sever ties with the University. But in recent decades the Administrative Board has only recommended expulsion in cases of admissions fraud.

The alternative, dismissal, means separation from the College, usually for more than five years, with the option of petition for readmission--a move that requires the vote of the full Faculty. On March 9, the Faculty voted to dismiss D. Drew Douglas, Class of 2000, an undergraduate who pled guilty to indecent assault and battery last September.

But some SASH advisers and administrators say the coalition's demands can be unclear or impractical.