The phrase, “This computer is so fucking slow,” appears on an index card. The question is: Where does this statement fit on Marcia Mahoney’s line of colored flags? According to Mahoney, the answer varies with every individual.

“The line represents a continuum,” said Mahoney, director of the Northwestern’s Sexual Harassment Prevention Office. “The extreme red flags represent, ‘Sleep with me and get an ‘A,’ and the extreme green represents ‘Hi, how are you?’ In between, in the yellow zone, are all the things people can do that aren’t so clearly defined as good or bad.”

Mahoney uses these multicolored flags to educate her students – the student body, administration, faculty and staff of NU.

However, the flags’ bright red, yellow and green colors should not undermine the seriousness of the lesson’s subject matter: sexual harassment. Mahoney’s flags represent fine lines that determine what is acceptable behavior.

An attorney with Chicago’s Seyfarth Shaw law firm, Mahoney has worked part time as special assistant to the provost since Jan. 1, 2001. She is responsible for sexual harassment policy development, training, claims investigation and resolution for students, faculty and staff in both the university’s undergraduate and graduate schools.

In her sexual harassment training and prevention sessions, Mahoney gives small groups cards that contain phrases in the “yellow,” or uncertain, zone. It is the group’s task to discuss the cards’ proper places along the continuum so that different sensitivities can be expressed. Mahoney utilizes this exercise to address the harder issues of sexual harassment.

Whether engaging students in the flag exercise or giving speeches to administration, Mahoney takes a personal approach to making others feel comfortable discussing their experiences. The program, initiated by Mahoney’s predecessor four years ago, addresses a wide spectrum of claims, from a professor’s inappropriate comment in lecture to unwarranted and forced sexual advances.

“I try to be very proactive in the training,” Mahoney said. “I try to use humor, making it not legalistic but interactive. I use bright colors, real words people use, not like other types of treatment led by lawyers with overheads. They don’t make it come to life like I really try to do.”

Training and prevention are key. But when the line is crossed, action is taken. The most prevalent student complaint is unrequited love or failed relationships, according to Mahoney.

However, sexual harassment does not only affect students, which Mahoney says is one of the program’s most important messages.

“Students need to remember that there are also thousands of people on this campus who are not students but employees,” she said. “What students do and don’t really pay attention to on a daily basis might cause other members of this community to feel uncomfortable.”

When this comfort is destroyed or even tarnished, Mahoney and the program must intervene. After a person seeks assistance, the program has an obligation to address the problem, whether directly or indirectly. Unlike confidential counselors, the department must take action but keeps victims’ anonymity to the extent it can.

The program’s rules are oftentimes stricter than the most stringent interpretations of the law. Its goal is not to enact a very legalistic policy but rather to avoid dancing around the law’s technicalities.

“We don’t want people walking to the edge of what is legally acceptable versus what is not and just sticking their toe over the line,” she said.

Despite this corrective approach, the program stresses education and prevention rather than discipline. With posters and informative speeches to the administration as well as students, the program tries to promote itself.

As of now, it is doing its job. According to Mahoney, after an initial peak in the number of cases reported after the program was first introduced, the number of complaints filed annually has leveled off, remaining at a level comparable to other Big Ten universities. Of course, this is due largely to the program’s, and Mahoney’s, hands-on approach.

Mahoney’s approach allows her to make observations about the different perspectives of various members of the NU community. When an index card reading, “A friend calls another a ‘pussy’ at Deering Field,” is introduced, Mahoney asks the group to place the card on the continuum. Adults immediately place the card near the red flags. Students, however, place the card on all three flag colors The answers to Mahoney’s questions aren’t always black and white – or red and green. nyou