City, Harvard to Meet on $919,000 Suit

Cambridge lawyers will meet with Harvard officials this week in an attempt to force a $919,000 settlement on a decade-old law suit.

The city council voted last night to allocate the settlement--should Harvard pay it--to the city's school system so it can finish the year without layoffs or forced vacations.

"Harvard is going to lose the suit anyway--they might as well pay us now." City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci, who introduced the order, said last night. The city sued Harvard almost ten years ago for the cost of repairs to the underpass between the Yard and the Science Center.

After the University built the bridge and donated it to the city, Cambridge's Public Works Department had to "spend months" fixing a leak in the underpass, Vellucci said.

Robin Schmidt, University vice-president for government and community affairs, said he instructed University attorneys Friday to investigate the request. "If there is a chance a settlement will be made, we will certainly get together with the city and talk," Schmidt said.

He added he does not know how the lawsuit stands in the courts.

The city tried to reclaim the land above the overpass from Harvard five years ago, when Vellucci proposed that the parcel be used for a high school track. The plan was abandoned after city and University officials agreed the track would be "shaped like a knockwurst," a city councilor remembered last night.

Vellucci said Harvard should settle the suit as "a good public relations gesture." He added, "All the Harvard administrators live in Cambridge--it's their school system too."

"Any time President Bok calls me, I will run down to his house and pick up the check," Vellucci said. "Harvard and Cambridge shouldn't be like Carter and Khomeini," he added, saying, "We don't need to throw rocks at one another."