While little work is done to the houses while they are occupied, Harvard did a great deal of modernization at 11 Kirkland Place before James D. Watson moved in, a previous tenant said.

The wife of William Doering, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, said Doering paid about $350 a month for the 11 Kirkland Place home between 1968 and 1970, when the family moved to a larger house.

"As far as upkeep is concerned, ownership is generally a great stimulant," said Hale Champion, a former director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Ownership also provides significant tax savings. When reporting his Federal income tax, a homeowner may deduct interest payments made on his mortgage.

Some of the faculty tenants said they would purchase their houses if the University decides to sell, while others said they preferred to rent. All the tenants reached by The Crimson declined to make definite decisions until they knew the details of the upcoming divestiture.

Should Harvard offer to sell the houses to their current tenants, a University mortgage plan would aid them in financing the purchase.

The mortgage plan, part of the benefit package open to all tenured professors, provides some financial advantages to faculty who are buying a home.

The plan provides a second mortgage at 4 per cent interest on up to 15 per cent of the housing cost, but not more than $10,000.

Under the plan, a professor buying a $50,000 home would borrow 70 per cent of the money from a commercial bank at regular interest rates, now between 8 and 9 per cent. The purchaser would provide 15 per cent of the money himself, and the University would provide the other 15 per cent at 4 per cent interest.

The savings to professors who use Harvard financing is the difference between 4 per cent interest and the market rate--8 to 9 per cent, or as high as 12 to 15 per cent for second mortgages--although the savings depend on the exact terms.

In effect, therefore, Harvard would become bankers instead of landlords.

Person to Person

Most of the tenants said they are satisfied with Harvard as their landlord. Bloomfield said he would be disappointed if the University asked him to purchase the house he is renting at 13 Kirkland Place. Bloomfield has lived in the house since February 1962, when the negotiated his rent with the University.

Hall said that the rent agreements were made through personal negotiation and that any plans for sale would also be done on an individual basis. Daly, concurring with Hall's view, said he hopes there are no mechanized rules when Harvard sells the houses.

Because the agreements and tax assessments have been made at different times, by different people, and in different circumstances, "you can seldom find total rationality in the system," Steiner said.