WHEN THE UNIVERSITY temporarily cancelled plans for a badly needed addition to the Fogg Museum in February, citing a shortage of funds. Harvard's every tub on its own bottom approach to financial accounting was widely held to blame. Though that principle makes fiscal sense, Harvard has often seemed inflexible in waiving it to meet pressing needs.

The University affiliated Arnold Arboretum, badly in need of stepped up security in the aftermath of a series of recent tapes and assaults on its Jamaica Plain facility, is only the most recent case in point. The Arboretum seems an imminent threat to human life. Yet Harvard again has refused to put aside fiscal caution. The University should swiftly volunteer the $50,000 in funds that Arboretum officials say they need--a gesture not only to improve community relations, but to fill an urgent need.

It would be unrealistic" to expect Harvard to provide even temporary beefed-up security at the 265-acre Jamaica Plain botanical gardens. Arboretum director Peter Ashton explained last week. While Ashton said the University has agreed to provide non monetary "support," Harvard is not expected to help Boston in policing what had previously been described as the city's safest park.

Harvard manages the gardens for Boston, and under the terms of a long term agreement the city is responsible for security there Due to the recent rash of violence in the Arboretum, however, Ashton and his colleague are now working on involving the Arboretum in a park ranger program that is due to begin in Boston soon in order to provide additional police protection.

It seems reasonable to us that Harvard should provide the funds necessary to establish the park ranger service at the Arboretum, only $50,000. University affiliates gain precious research experience from their involvement with the Arboretum, and though Harvard spends hundreds of thousands of dollars managing the Arboretum, it is able to lease the Jamaica Plain property from the city for only one dollar per year.

That sounds to us like a great bargain, one that would not be weakened substantially by the additional expenditure of $50,000 to safeguard human lives. Such a grant might also spur other private donations to improve Arboretum safety. The University should recognize its responsibility to local residents, and again put aside its austere accounting principles in favor of common sense.