Freshman Register Is Imperiled

The staff of the Harvard Yearbook threatened Friday to end its 67-year-old tradition of publishing the Freshman Register unless University officials find the students new office space by June 12.

"The only thing we have to bargain with is our publications." Yearbook president Donald E. Tarver II '82, said Friday, adding that University officials have been "very inconsiderate about the whole housing matter from the start."

When a deal to buy the building currently housing the Advocate fell through earlier this year, the University offered a North House basement to the group, which will be evicted this spring from "a few small rooms" on the upper floors of the Office of Career Services and Off-Campus Learning. Tarver said.

Non-Generation

The Yearbook staff voted to reject the North House offer for security and accessibility reasons. Tarver said, adding that administrators have since said they are going to "stop generating possibilities."

Archie C. Epps III. dean of students, said yesterday. "There is time for us to find a solution" before the June 12 deadline.

Harvard officials might decide to publish a Freshman Register on their own if the Yearbook staff refused to print one, Epps said.

"I expect we would try: the Houses already do their own, so it's not unfeasible." Epps said.

The Yearbook currently publishes the Register without financial assistance from the University, although they do publicize it in official mailings and work with the admissions office to gather data. Tarver said.

Special Delivery

The 13 members of the Yearbook's executive board Friday signed the letter which they distributed to administrators, threatening not to publish the Register unless "long-term building space" was made available by the University. Tarver added that unless a new home for the staff is found soon, next year's Yearbook might also be imperiled.

A separate letter mailed to President Bok accuses University officials of "proffering only building spaces unsuitable for long-term lodging of the Yearbook organization."

The letter says the executive board declined the offer of space in North House's Holmes Hall because of safety and convenience factors and because "the trustees of the Yearbook institution have expressed to the undergraduate executive board their moral and legal obligation' to secure quarters wholly satisfactory for the operational needs of the organization."

"We're prepared to buy a building." Tarver said. adding, however, that it would have to be a campus building because "we can't afford to live in Cambridge."

Francis Lawton, assistant dean for facilities, said yesterday the Yearbook's complaints about North House are the same sort of rhetoric we hear about people living at the Quad."

Lawton said he would meet with Yearbook representatives in "hopes of resolving the question." but added that it would not be easy to find a different home for the organization.

"We have space problems throughout the University." Lawton said