Student starts national anti-harassment network
By Jean Lee
■ The Columbia Spectator
Columbia U.
Columbia I'.'s Columbia College will
soon be the base campus for a new
national college network of information
about racist, sexist and homophobic
harassment incidents, if the plans of the
network’s founder succeed.
Senior Jeff Rake, chair of the
Columbia College Student Council,
launched the project in September. The
National Student Clearinghouse on
Harassment, a network of support infor
mation. will share reports of harassment
and ways to battle harassment. Rake
said.
The clearinghouse will he completely
student-run.
Rake said he created the
propram after perceiving a
need for colleges nationwide
to share tactics for fighting
harassment.
"'File idea crystalized in my
mind when 1 attended a
forum on racism in
Washington, D C he said
Several incidents of
harassment occurred at
Columbia last year Racist
graffiti appeared m Barnard
Jet) Rake
dormitories, leaders of the Columbia
Gay and Lesbian Alliance received death
threats, and the same group's office was
vandalized
Sharing information on incidents will
make it easier to combat harassment.
Rake believes.
“All kinds of incidents of
harassment aren't given sig
nificance because people
think the incidents are iso
lated problems," he said
Twenty seven other
schools have expressed
interest in participating in
the clearinghouse, including
Harvard, Cornell, Yale,
Princeton, Stanford,
Amherst and Wesleyan,
according to Rake.
Initially, all participating colleges will
be asked to submit a short history of
harassment issues which have been ol
concern on campus in the past Member
schools will continue to forward informa
tion on new harassment incidents to the
clearinghouse, which then will be com
piled into a packet and mailed to all mein
her schools. Rake said mailings will occur
monthly or twice a semester, depending
on the number of submissions.
"Participating colleges will have the
ability to learn from students at other
schools about etfective ways to combat
harassment, and will have the ability to
share their own successful methods with
other participating colleges," Rake said
If respondents desire to keep the iden
tity of their schools confidential, they
will identified in mailings only by region,
Rake said
The committee has received a grant of
$750 from the dean oft ’olumbia College,
which will fund the first mailing
Additional funding is being sought from
other departments and colleges of
('olumbia 1
Church
Continued from page 2
all these sins you’ve told them about and
they say, This is what it did to Jesus.’
They teach you that each time you sin,
you are physically putting Jesus on the
cross. This leads to a lot of guilt
“They read through a lot of pas
sages, and everyone gets so emotional
about it. you (the newcomer) literally
start to break down and cry,’’ Kum
added.
Long also refuted these statements.
“The idea of the study is something like
that, but I believe that’s a misrepresen
tation of it."
The mainstream Memorial Church ol
Christ in Houston published a report in
1986 alleging that the Boston church
and its adherents manipulate new
members into embracing the church bv
using a fixed Bible study A discipleship
partner — usually the member bringing
in a potential convert — finds out some
thing private about the inductees life
and secretly tells it to the leader of the
Bible study, the report claims.
The topic then is casually introduced
into the session, and the potential con
vert is encouraged to draw a higher
meaning from the personal reference or
“revelation” brought forth by the leader,
the report says The leader then is seen
as a prophet of sorts
When a member leaves the church,
Hohman said, remaining members are
told that, “So-and-so doesn't believe in
God anymore. That person went to a
cold, bad place where bright lights were
shined in their faces and they were just
told that 'church is evil’ over and over
until they believed it."
1 lohman said he is convinced that this
is another C-U Church lactic to make
members afraid to leave the group.
Former members’ damning state
ments about the Boston and C-L
churches are usually the result of brain
washing, Iwmg claimed.
"Most of the former members go
through some kind of deprogramming
where they teach that, This is how you
should feel about vour experience in the
church,’They are told that over and over
until they believe it."
It’s almost not worth it for C-L’ Church
members to defend themselves against
various charges, Long said, because
“everything we say gets taken out of con
text.”
“Why should you explain parts of your
practice truthfully to people when they
aren't going to believe your answers
anyway?"
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