Peter Wasserman, a member of the Harvard Square Business Men's Association board of directors, said last week possible University expansion by 100 to 200 students would cause "no conflict whatsoever." He said he favored Harvard's announced intention to expand housing for faculty, graduate students and married students because "it will take a lot of pressure off the open housing market" and reduce local commuter traffic and parking problems.

Wasserman, whose family has large property holdings in the Square, including The Garage shopping complex, said new graduate student housing "would bring people into a permanent shopping population and would help local businesses."

"I think Harvard's interim plans and policies should help diversify and balance the marketplace," Wasserman said.

Donham of CCA said the need to "diversify the marketplace" is a "weak argument and a poor reason" to accept Harvard's report on possible expansion. "Increases in the size of the student population or in the physical layout of the University will certainly have an impact on the city, but also will create a real danger of making the school itself very impersonal and undesirable as a place to learn," he said.

Planning Director Bowyer said he is not flatly opposed to any Harvard expansion.

"But if Harvard decides to expand by more than 25 per cent, then the city will have to take a hard look at what would happen," Bowyer said. "Harvard has really reached the point where it doesn't have any elbow room left. Any expansion in one sector will be at the expense of another."

So far, Bowyer, Donham and members of local neighborhood groups have been unable to unite on recommendations for what the final draft of the Harvard report should contain. According to persons from several community groups, the present interim report contains no overt clues as to the direction Harvard will take in its future development. Bowyer said he found it difficult to react to a report that contains "many abstractions and an assortment of alternatives."

Bowyer said everyone--and especially Harvard administrators--must be sensitive about the need to control overall growth patterns in the city. "You have to remember that Cambridge already is too overcrowded for its own good."