A Faculty committee charged with reviewing the College’s responses to sexual assault held its first forum last night to elicit student comment on the topic.

The Lowell House event will be repeated in each of the Houses over the course of the year by the Leaning Committee.

“We have a charge to make recommendations regarding counseling, support and education for issues of sexual harassment,” said Professor of International Health and Committee Chair Jennifer Leaning in an interview after the meeting. “We need to speak to students directly to make those decisions.”

About eight students and two resident tutors attended the meeting, which The Crimson was not allowed to observe. Seven members of the committee were also present, including its two student members, Sarah B. Levit-Shore ’04 and Jared M. Slade ’03.

Committee members said the desire for increased student input stems from the fact only two students serve on the Leaning Committee.

“Having only two students on the committee is limitory,” Slade said. “The whole purpose of having these House meetings is in order to hear more from students. You need to understand the culture of sexual harassment on campus before you can attempt to fix the problem.”

The committee chair said she hopes to reach students who would be unlikely to offer unsolicited comment on issues of sexual assault.

“Our hope is that these meetings will allow us contact with individual students beyond student groups,” Leaning said. “Often those students who ordinarily do not speak publicly about these issues give us the most important and valuable feedback.”

Last night’s meeting covered a range of topics about sex at Harvard, including unhealthy sex, the lack of healthy relationships and traditional dating, sexual assault, what constitutes proper sexual consent and ways to improve assault education.

The meeting focused on students’ personal opinions and experiences regarding sexual harassment and sexual relationships at Harvard.

The Administrative Board’s new policy for investigating peer disputes—the adoption of which created controversy last spring—were not discussed.

“At first, people shared their opinions on issues of sexuality and harassment, but eventually the discussion moved more towards personal experiences with these issues,” said Stephanie L. Safdi ’05, who helped organize the meeting.

The prevalence of sexual assault in both long-term and casual relationships was also discussed.

“We attempted to identify in what situations instances of sexual harassment are common and occur most often,” said Debbie A. Sorensen, a Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment (SASH) tutor in Lowell House.

Leaning said that the meeting was deliberately kept small in order to foster a frank discussion on opinions and experiences with sexual harassment.