Cambridge/MIT Hold Steady In Stormy/Calm Relationship

When Paul E. Gray, chancellor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), replaces Jerome B. Wiesner as president of the university in nine months, he will inherit a town/gown relationship free of daily strife but prone to fits of tension.

"Of course there are problems from time to time, but I like to think our relations are reasonably good," Walter L. Milne, special assistant to the chairman and president, said yesterday. "I hope we're reasonable and responsible in our dealings with Cambridge."

Because Gray has been the second-ranking administrator since 1971, MIT's interaction with the city will remain "pretty much on an even course," Milne added.

But Cambridge City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci said yesterday that MIT acts like any other major corporation when an issue affects it directly.

"MIT and Cambridge get along fine except for issues which are of major importance," he said.

Vellucci said that DNA research has caused friction between Cambridge and MIT and that nuclear waste disposal may become a problem. Milne said MIT follows city and federal ordinances in those projects. "Nuclear shouldn't be an issue. I don't believe it should be a problem," Milne said.

MIT's location seems to give its town/gown relationship an advantage over more centrally located Harvard. City Councilor Mary Ellen Preusser said yesterday Cambridge and MIT have enjoyed a very "low key" relationship. "When they breathe it doesn't send a ripple through the city the way Harvard's actions do," she said.

The only strain between college expansion and neighborhood citizens seems to be MIT's development of 11 acres of land on Mass Ave, midway between MIT and Central Square.

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Preusser said the city wants to see the site developed, with neighborhood groups helping to plan traffic and design control to "nurture appropriate development."

Milne said MIT plans to build an office park there similar to the one in Tech Square, although financial considerations have delayed development. "Our general notion is to develop that property for tax-producing, job-producing purposes," he said. "I was elected president of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, so the business community must think well of the school."