University May Postpone Eviction Date

The Graduate School of Design (GSD) may allow residents of 7 Summer Rd. to stay in their apartments beyond the scheduled June 1 eviction date, Maurice D. Kilbridge, dean of the GSD, said yesterday.

"We have three possible options," Kilbridge said yesterday. "The first is to proceed with the original plan and evict on June 1. The second is to rollback the eviction dates, and the third, which is a corollary of the second, is to take over the building gradually, beginning with the basement," he said.

Kilbridge and Jay A. Brown, assistant dean of the GSD, met with tenants Tuesday night and toured the five-story brick building.

"We will reconvene the tenants in about a week to tell them what is happening," Brown said yesterday.

The University mailed eviction notices to tenants of the apartment building last month, informing them they would have to leave by June 1 to make room for expanded GSD office space.

"We're hanging by our thumbs now," Kilbrige said, referring to the need for more space. "It's just a question of how long we can continue to do that," he said, adding "but we really do want to try and work out a compromise."

The tenants are scheduled to meet with the Cambridge Rent Control Board today to "state our intention to remain, but also to tell them that we are working on a compromise," John MacLean, a tenant in the building said yesterday.

The rent control hearing which is mandated under Cambridge law is also a prerequisite to challenging the eviction in court, but MacLean said the tenants were more interested in compromise. "We don't want to go head to head with Harvard on this" MacLean said.

Kilbridge said the decision to consider other options was not made because the GSD feared legal action. "We can understand why they're upset, and we want to help them," Kilbridge said Monday.

Tenants suggested both the possible rollback of the eviction date and the use of the connected cellars of 7 Sumner and 3 Sumner for office or storage space.

"The shortage of other apartments in the area is the prime reason for our obduracy," John MacLean, a tenant in the building said yesterday.

MacLean added he hoped a compromise could be worked out. "Harvard can be a reasonable place if you get to the right people, the people who make the decisions," MacLean said. The tenants requested the meeting with Kilbridge and Brown during a stormy session last month with community relations officials.

Tenants also suggested constructing a new building or putting in an underground facility during the Tuesday meeting. "We explained to them that since the GSD's financial fortunes are at the break-even point, economics would constrain us from doing anything like that," Brown said yesterday.