Panel to Consider University Rents

President Bok is forming a committee of faculty and administrators to investigate whether the University should subsidize housing for academic personnel, Blenda J. Wilson, senior associate dean of the School of Education, said yesterday.

Wilson said Bok was acting in response to charges last spring by tenants of the Botanic Gardens--whose residents are affiliated with the University in faculty or staff positions--that proposed rent increases would push junior faculty out of Boston.

Bok met in June with tenants who wanted him to repeal rent increases of up to 22 per cent scheduled to go into effect in July. As a result of the meeting, Bok asked Archibald Cox, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, to prepare a report on whether the "rents set by Harvard Real Estate (HRE) in Botanic Gardens were appropriate," Cox said yesterday.

Cox recently sent a first draft of the report to HRE president Sally Zeckhauser and tenants. Zeckhauser said yesterday that the report did not favor either position. "It seemed to lay out both sides fairly," she added.

Cox declined to comment yesterday on the draft or on when the final report will be released.

Linda Ramsey, president of the tenant association, also declined to comment on the draft, but said, "Cox has a good reputation for mediating disputes and being fair."

Some tenants are withholding the rent increases from their paychecks to protest HRE's policy of increasing rental rates until they reach the "fair market value" for the Cambridge area.

Ron Slaby, a member of the association's executive board and a tutor in psychology and education at Currier House, said yesterday the University has an obligation to consider the effect of housing policy on instructors.

A number of tenants are not paying the July increase in rents, Slaby added, noting that HRE had not issued new leases for the apartments.

First on the Block

Slaby added that the Cambridge Tenants Organization said they were the first group to take such an action.

Residents of Holden Green--Harvard-owned apartments about a mile east of the Science Center in which graduate students live--recently organized a tenants association and elected a president, Slaby said.

Bok was unavailable for comment.