LATER THIS MONTH, the city of Cambridge is expected to take by eminent domain a one-acre parcel of University-owned land north of Lesley College.

Harvard can do nothing to stop Cambridge from claiming the land; it can, however, go to court to demand more than the $480,000 the city will offer for the field. Basing its claim on later appraisals, the University could sue for as much as $750,000.

We urge Harvard to accept the lower price--not for fear of the "public criticism" that city officials have promised to level should they not, but instead because Harvard should take every opportunity it can to ease problems it has helped create.

Neighborhood groups will work with the city to convert the Sacramento St. site into a full-fledged playground, the only sizeable chunk of open land left in their neighborhood. Harvard is a major cause of the heavy land development in areas surrounding its campus, both because of its own land needs and those of the myriad institutions it attracts.

And even if the higher price is closer to the actual worth of the land, the city cannot afford to pay it at a time when school programs are being cut and there is a dire need for more public housing. Harvard, again along with the institutions it attracts, acts as a drain on the city's tax base, a drain that is not plugged by the University's modest in-lieu-of-tax payments.

University officials, who have long hoped to use the land for junior faculty housing, say they are perplexed by the city's decision to keep the land open at a time when homes are nearly impossible to find. But building faculty housing won't do much, if anything, to ease the city's housing crunch. It will draw Harvard affilliates in from the suburbs, and do nothing for the students and longtime residents of the city who need homes.

Times are much tougher for the city than they are for Harvard. As the source of many of the problems the city faces, the University should rise to the occasion and not contest the $480,000 price offered by the city, a payment large enough to insure that Harvard will not lose money on the deal.

Instead, Harvard should continue trying to establish good relations with the city. Last year's donation of a $500,000 parcel of land to a neighborhood group for low-cost housing was an important gesture. Working with, not against, Cambridge officials on the Sacramento St. field would be another.