Harvard Denies Yen for Press

Harvard yesterday denied plans to purchase land along the Charles River currently held by the Riverside Press, which is going out of business next month.

"Harvard University has not had any negotiations with either the Cambridge Electric Light Company or with the Riverside Press concerning their real estate holdings on Memorial Drive, and the University does not seek to obtain these properties," Edward S. Gruson, assistant to the President for Community Affairs, said in a statement released yesterday.

The statement was issued in response to a resolution passed by the Cambridge Housing Convention on November 14, which called for the disclosure of any options Harvard has on that land site.

Decrease Enrollment

Other resolutions passed by the Convention demanded that Harvard build 1000 units of low-rent housing and provide housing for its students outside of Cambridge or decrease its enrollment by 1000 students a year for each of the next five years.

The Housing Convention is a group of Cambridge residents concerned with the housing crush in the area. They have repeatedly cited Harvard and its students as being one of the main causes of the housing shortage.

Gruson's statement responded to thelatter two resolutions as follows:

"At present we are working to provide low-rent housing at the corner of Mt. Auburn St. and Putnam Ave. (94 units for the elderly) and at the site on Howard and River Streets. In other parts of Cambridge, namely near Inman Square, and in the Cambridge Highlands, we are working to provide other low-rent, well-planned project

"We are seeking to lodge our students in housing not drawn from the Cambridge housing pool by building additional housing for graduate students and young faculty."