Steam Talks

Negotiations with Cambridge Steam Company to replace a contract which expired June 30 remain at least several weeks from completion. Harvard officials say.

The municipal utility supplies heat for most buildings in the Yard as well as all the river Houses and the Business School. For the past eight months. Harvard has continued to receive steam under a "gentleman's agreement" that the new contract will include payments retroactive to last June, says Administrative Vice President Robert H. Scott.

Because the old contract was negotiated shortly after World War II, the University anticipates paying a substantially higher price for stream under the new pact. Financial Vice President Thomas O'Brien cited rising steam costs as a major factor in Harvard's tuition increases earlier this month.

Scott says that while the University is studying alternate strategies for heating buildings more efficiently, there is little doubt Harvard will continue to purchase steam from the utility in the foreseeable future. He added that the University definitely will not address the steam problem by building its own power plant, as it did when faced with a similar situation in the Boston Medical Area ten years ago.