When earlier this year, faced with a federal civil defense evacuation plan which called for Cambridge's residents to travel more than 100 miles away to the village of Greenfield, Mass., in the event of a nuclear attack, the city council decided to take a stand. The body refused to distribute the federal plans, and instead assembled its own blueprint for avoiding nuclear disaster: a mass-produced pamphlet detailing the case for disarmament.

In the last few months dozens of cities and towns from as far away as Oregon have requested copies so that they may pursue similar efforts. It comes as no surprise, then, that the council followed the lead of area groups which oppose U.S. military aid to Latin America and agreed to include Question #2 on this year's ballot.

Council members acknowledge that support for this non-binding referendum will not provide a final solution to what some see as a moral dilemma in EL Salvador and neighboring countries, but they maintain that it could very well be a beginning.

QUESTION #3

"Shall the City Council be instructed to contact the Mass. Congressional delegation to place a freeze on the further development of nuclear weapons in the city of Cambridge?"

Like Question #2, the third non-binding referendum is expected to attract more than the usual share of student voters to the polls tomorrow. That's good news for city liberals--members of the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) alate--who traditionally have relied on student support to win election to the city council and school committee.

Not only city liberals, however, have been jumping on the anti-nuke banwagon during this year's campaign. Perceiving the overwhelming popularity of the city's disarmament pamphlet, nearly every incumbent city councilor has attempted to grab a share of the credit for its distribution. city councilors can only gain from supporting students' efforts to stop nuclear research at MIT, Harvard and private laboratories. Because of the non-binding status of Question #3, as well as the potential unconstitutionality of banning all nuclear studies, most older voters will probably shrug off this issue with a laugh.

But the student voters will, the incumbents hope, flock to the polls to register their opposition to nuclear weapons development and military aid to Latin America.

And once in, the reasoning goes, they may well also support the councillors who helped put the questions on the ballot.