Yearbook May Buy Advocate Building

The Harvard Yearbook may offer to buy the Harvard Advocate's building on South St., Shaun Mahoney '81, president of the Yearbook, said Wednesday.

Alumni trustees of each group are talking about a possible sale but "nothing concrete has developed," Mahoney added.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, approached the Advocate's trustees in November about the possibility of selling the literary magazine's building, but "nobody raised the question of a figure", Sandra deJong '82, president of the Advocate, said this week.

DeJong said she has heard nothing about the sale since that meeting.

Limbo

Negotiations between the two groups are "extremely tentative." Epps said yesterday, adding that he suggested the sale because the yearbook's quarters in the Office of Career Services and Off-Campus Learning (OCS-OCL) have shrunk.

Douglas McIntyre '77, head of the Advocate's board of trustees, said yesterday the trustees would consider selling "under the right circumstances" but not until the Yearbook makes an offer.

The Yearbook has enough money in a building trust Fund to buy a permanent home, Mahoney said, adding that its "cramped" quarters--caused by the combination last year of the Graduate Office of Placement with the undergraduate OCS-OCL--gave the Yearbook incentive to find new headquarters.

The trustees will have to find a new home for the Advocate and hammer out other details before striking an agreement, Mahoney said.

Epps said he originally suggested the basement of Canaday Hall as a new site for the Advocate but decided he did not want to give a long-term lease to the organization.

Though he called finding a permanent location for the Yearbook an "immediate priority," Epps added he is more pessimistic about the likelihood of reaching an agreement "because we couldn't offer the Advocate the security they need to give up a good location."