But, the coalition members say, space alone, like that provided by Radcliffe's Lyman Common Room (LCR), won't cut it either. Karteron says the LCR lacks "administrative support."

McGaw adds, "It's just a room you're allowed to use."

Distance from Harvard's central campus and minimal publicity keeps the LCR at the margins of most female undergraduates' lives. This, coalition members say, precludes nighttime visits and spontaneous "hanging-out."

Many senior women say that in their four years here they have never set foot in the LCR and that it does not count as a women's space.

A Matter of Principle

But another powerful obstacle to any building that would combine space and an administrator just for women is the College's strict policy against creating special domains for a specific student ethnic or gender group.

"I think that it's best not to set up different spaces for people, but to respond programmatically [instead]," Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III says, "because women are full and equal members of Harvard College."

And several female undergraduates say they agree. Daphne D. Adler '99 says she has never felt the need for resources targeted specifically at women. In fact, these types of resources, she says, may actually lend support to conceptions of gender inequality.

"Giving women additional services implies that they need more support" she says.

Samantha J. Riesenfeld '99 also sees a danger in establishing a women's center.

"It makes it seem like women have all these problems," she says.

The coalition says they have already had some success lobbying the College. Some changes will be made to the first-year orientation meeting on safety to better accommodate concerns about sexual violence. SASH advisers will have longer training periods.

And the coalition will likely continue to be a prominent group on campus, But by focusing on demands for a women's center that seem very unlikely to be approved, the coalition may be misdirecting its efforts for the time being.