Day-Care Center Faces Shut-Down; Seeks Harvard Aid

A day-care center that grew out of the Afro-American Cultural Center over a year and a half ago now faces eviction and wants Harvard's assistance, its director said yesterday.

Brenda Brewington, who runs the International Day Care Center at 20 Sacramento St., said that the Cambridge Fire Department last month refused to grant approval to the center's operating in a basement location.

"We're open illegally now-until Harvard finds us a place or when the Health Department closes us down," she said.

However, Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for Administration, said yesterday that Harvard is obligated to help only those day-care centers that are members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Day-Care Council.

Centers represented by that council include ones on the properties of the Faculty, Radcliffe, and the Law School.

Hall gave as an example of the assistance Harvard might extend to such member-centers the recent renovation of a center for the children of married students, at a cost of "thousands of dollars."

Elin Youngberg, a member of the council and a staff member in Hall's office, said yesterday that the International Center is in fact in the council, simply because Brewington has consistently attended its meetings.

"In point of fact we [Harvard] do have an ethical responsibility that we're acting on to the best of our several abilities," Youngberg said.

She added that Harvard is working to relocate the center.

Hall, who mentioned that the International Center is doing up a "bang-up job," said that he found out it existed only two months ago.

He said that the center was established by the Afro-American Cultural Center and should be "under their guidance and control."

Meanwhile, Brewington said that Harvard "could probably look a little faster" for another spot for the center