Harvard, Cambridge Officials Discus Relations Over Dinner

The menu included shrimp cocktail and steak, and the dinner conversation rounded from nuclear disarmament to retraining public school teachers when top officials from Harvard and Cambridge gathered Thursday at the President's Quincy St. residence to break bread and strengthen relations between the city and the University.

Officials characterized the dinner as candid and beneficial, but few concrete proposals were agreed upon.

"We obviously didn't settle anything," said President Bok. He added that the meeting was important because it "laid a groundwork for continued dialogue."

Originally proposed by Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, the meeting was an attempt to reverse the trend of what a city official described as "several years of deteriorating relations" between Cambridge and Harvard.

The city's contingent included Vellucci, the city council, the school committee and the city manager. Bok, University General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54, and Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs Robin Schmidt were among Harvard's representatives.

Bok said the meeting was successful because it represented a middle ground between formal negotiations and a strictly social function. But some city officials complained that the dinner was closer to the latter.

Councilor David W. Sullivan said yesterday that when he questioned Bok about the possibility of increasing the University's in lieu-of-tax payments to the city. Bok refused to discuss the subject. As an academic institution, Harvard pays no property taxes on its dormitories, classroom buildings, libraries and laboratories. The University annually gives the city a donation as a substitute, but the in-lieu-of-tax payment is substantially less than the value of the property.

In addition, Harvard owns large parcels of land in the city for investment purposes. With the property tax reductions mandated by Proposition 21. City Manager Robert W. Healy estimated late last week that the University has accrued more than $250,000 without increasing its in lieu of tax gift.

When he asked Bok about Harvard's record as the city's largest landlord. Sullivan said Bok "reported that that was Harvard's business and not mine."

Officials agreed that a working committee of Harvard and Cambridge representatives suggested by Vellucci the most concrete result of the meeting.

Councilor Francis Duehay '55 described the committee as a specific mechanism to consider specific projects," such as the use of University recreational facilities by city children.

The other concrete result of the dinner was an agreement to accelerate work on a program to retrain Cambridge teachers in specialized fields using Harvard facilities.