“My experience at Harvard over the years has led me to recognize the need for the community to have adequate and effective ways of dealing with issues like sexual assault,” Mendelsohn said.
When the number of students who would serve on the committee was announced last spring, members of Coalition Against Sexual Violence had said two student voices were not enough. But Leaning said the committee will involve more of the student body through weekly meetings with student groups and public forums.
“We are here to create a surround sound for students here,” Leaning said. “It may wind up with us hearing a lot more about problems than before but I would consider that a success.”
In addition to public meetings, the committee will maintain a website, www.college.harvard.edu/services/leaningcommittee, and solicit e-mail suggestions.
Though the committee does not yet have a firm agenda, Leaning said she hopes it will focus first on ways to improve education about sexual violence for younger undergraduates.
Leaning said she attended the Safe Community Meeting Monday night, where first-years received general safety tips, including ways to protect themselves from sexual violence.
Coalition members have in the past criticized this meeting for being too general and cursory.
Leaning said she would like to see the education done in smaller groups, with a stronger focus on the Massachusetts state laws on sexual violence.
In addition to Leaning, Mendelsohn and the two students, the committee includes Diana L. Eck, Lowell House Master and professor of comparative religion and Indian studies; Michael R. Rodriguez, Adams House senior tutor and lecturer on psychology; Veronica Reed Ryback, former Director of the Rape Crisis Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital; James H. Ware, Cabot House Master and Mosteller professor of biostatistics in the Faculty of Public Health; Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans; Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science Katharine Park; and UHS Mental Health Services psychologist Maureen Rezendes.
—Staff writer Anne K. Kofol can be reached at kofol@fas.harvard.edu.