Wilson says the workshops have sparked “fascinating” conversations and that student response has been mostly positive.

“[First-years] are helping each other about this topic and that’s the best way to learn,” Wilson says. “There are amazing people in every group who are helping to shape their classmates.”

“It’s a really tough topic to discuss and we just hope that when people leave the workshop that’s not the last discussion they have about this topic,” she says.

But not all of the outreaches have gone smoothly, according to Wilson and some students.

At a joint workshop for Lionel A and B entryways, Morgan C. Wimberley ’07 says the meeting began on a hostile note when some of her peers brought their homework and Wilson asked them to put it away.

“She just came across a little bit forward and blunt and so once that happened it was sort of the reaction of the students to be that way back,” she says.

Wimberley says that although the mood improved as the workshop proceeded, the initial tension stifled discussion.

“I personally thought it was a waste of time,” Wimberley says. “Some of the things we talked about helped me out a lot, like knowing the actual facts, the actual wording of laws and guidelines so I can see how rape is defined.”

Lauren A. Broughton ’07, another participant in the workshop, says she and some of her entrywaymates discussed the workshop with their proctor and noted there was still confusion afterwards over what is considered rape.

She says while the workshop taught them Harvard’s definition of rape, she still is unclear on what state law is.

“We thought the meeting didn’t really answer all of our questions,” Broughton says. “We left almost more confused than when we got in.”

Broughton and Wimberley both say that filling out the second survey of the four-stage evaluation in a group setting might have skewed responses.

“I don’t know if everyone would be as honest as they would have been if they filled them out in the privacy of their own rooms,” says Broughton.

Wilson says that the experience of Lionel A and B was an anomaly and that all other entryways have enjoyed the outreach.

“There were people [at the Lionel A and B workshop] that didn’t want to be there and what I said to them was, ‘You might not realize this right now, but your attitude toward this workshop might be affecting people around you. Your neighbor might be a survivor and you might be alienating them,’” she says.