In retrospect, Laura believes that she was more intoxicated than the club member appeared to be, and she is unsure how to label the incident.

“I’m not sure how much I should be bothered by it,” she says. “Honestly, my own conception of final clubs was this kind of thing happens all the time.”

Laura has not returned to the club since that night.

Regardless of whether what happened to her constitutes sexual assault, Laura says, the situation is representative of what she sees as a larger problem with the male-dominated social scene.

“They have control over the atmosphere of the party, they have control over the final club, they have control over the alcohol, and then they let in all of these drunk girls,” she says.

Because the members of all-male final clubs control not only the spaces where parties take place, but also the guests who are admitted and the distribution and consumption of alcohol, many women have expressed concern that clubs create an environment of misogyny that is a catalyst for sexual assault.

“The perception is that final clubs foster sexual assault through being environments where people drink a lot in unmonitored ways with little or no supervision of any kind, “ says Assistant Dean of Students Susan B. Marine, who is also the director of the Harvard College Women’s Center.

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?

Marine, who was the founding director of OSAPR, says she has received few reports of sexual assault from final clubs.

It is difficult to accurately determine where sexual assaults take place on campus. Only one or two sexual assault cases go before the Administrative Board—the College’s primary disciplinary body—each year, but national statistics indicate that as many as 25 percent of women have been sexually assaulted by the time they graduate from college.

According to OSAPR Director Sarah A. Rankin, “recently gathered statistics” collected by her office show that 70 percent of sexual assaults occurred off campus, 20 percent took place on campus, and 10 percent happened at an unknown location.

“We consider ‘off campus’ to be any location outside of Harvard property, including but not limited to final clubs,” she writes in an e-mailed statement.

In an e-mail, former Dean of Harvard College Benedict H. Gross ’71 writes that it was impossible to detect any trend as to where sexual assaults occurred during his tenure.

“It’s what we call in math ‘the law of small numbers,’” he writes. “There weren’t enough cases to make any sensible statistics.”

Further adding to the difficulty, while sexual assaults may not take place at clubs, they may involve individuals leaving the clubs. And members of clubs say that each has different policies, cultures, and leadership, meaning that it is difficult to make sweeping statements about sexual assaults and final clubs.