Former Harvard women's soccer players call for unity in response to 'scouting report' by men's team

— -- Six members of the 2012 Harvard women's soccer recruiting class who were the subjects of a sexually explicit "scouting report" circulated by the Harvard men's soccer team are calling for unity.

In a letter to The Harvard Crimson called "Stronger Together," Brooke Dickens, Kelsey Clayman, Alika Keene, Emily Mosbacher, Lauren Varela and Haley Washburn wrote: "As women of Harvard Soccer and of the world, we want to take this experience as an opportunity to encourage our fellow women to band together in combatting this type of behavior, because we are a team and we are stronger when we are united."

Their letter to the student newspaper was in response to a 2012 document written by a member of the men's team that rated the physical attractiveness of recruits on the women's team and included photos and lewd comments about many of them. It was circulated online among teammates. Officials at the Ivy League school would not say whether they are investigating to determine whether similar letters were circulated after 2012.

"More than anything," the women wrote in reply, "we are frustrated that this is a reality that all women have faced in the past and will continue to face throughout their lives."

University officials described the document as offensive and unacceptable.

The six women close their letter with a message to the writers.

"To the men of Harvard Soccer and any future men who may lay claim to our bodies and choose to objectify us as sexual objects, in the words of one of us, we say together: 'I can offer you my forgiveness, which is -- and forever will be -- the only part of me that you can ever claim as yours.' "

Read their entire letter here.