According to Champion, the Corporation must interpret the meaning of the words in the Daly Report: "residential property not essential to its own needs." Once that is decided, Champion said, he sees no further conflict of interest.

The 25 houses are in the comfortable tree-lined sections of the Cambridge residential area northeast of the Yard around Francis Ave. and west of the Yard near Mt. Auburn St.

Ostensibly the houses are rented so that faculty have an opportunity to live near the University in an otherwise tight housing market. In some cases, the mere availability of housing meets the needs of incoming professors.

But faculty and administrators admit that the houses, some with low rent, are also used as a recruiting device, providing monetary subsidies to professors or administrators the University is especially anxious to lure to Harvard.

The Administration would not reveal the addresses, names of tenants or rents of the University-owned houses, but a week-long investigation by The Harvard Crimson determined a total of 25 University houses and their tenants.

The Business School Dean's residence outside of Cambridge, and three multi-family units--the Botanical Garden Apts. on Fernald Drive, Faculty Row on Linnaean St., and an apartment building at 83 Brattle St.--bring the total number of properties to 29.

Two Lists

Hall cited a figure of 29 properties involved in the current divestiture study, but would not release the list of the homes involved. Although Administration officials would neither confirm nor deny that The Crimson's list matched Hall's list, Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for Government and Community Affairs, said at least 27 of the properties were the same.

The other two properties--16 Hillside Ave. and 14 Scott St.--were classified as houses designated for faculty when Harvard submitted a list of these houses to the Cambridge Rent Control Board.

Among the faculty members living in the 25 single-unit houses are John K. Fairbank '29, Higginson Professor of History; James D. Watson, professor of Molecular Biology; Morton W. Bloomfield, Porter Professor of English; and Daniel J. Robbins, director of the Fogg.

Also renting houses from Harvard are Daniel Bell, professor of Sociology; Jerome A. Cohen, professor of Law; Alfred W. Crompton, professor of Biology; and Daniel P. Moynihan, professor of Education and Urban Politics. Moynihan, on leave as U.S. Ambassador to India, will return to 57 Francis Ave., which is temporarily occupied by Moulton.

The decision to sell residential properties stems from two distinct interests of the Bok Administration: the desire to tighten up financial dealings and the wish to get out of the real estate business.

Hall said he did not object to the continuation of rent subsidies as long as someone other than the central Administration was bearing the burden. "If a particular faculty wants to pay part of the rent, that should be their option," he said.

Hall said inequities in the rent exist, due to deals negotiated with Harvard many years ago. He said most leases were signed eight to ten years ago in private agreements with the University.

But The Crimson has found by comparing Cambridge city records that 15 of the properties, not including the official residences of the presidents and deans, changed hands within the last five years.