-cess to the lawn. He also instituted a policy allowing any College affiliate to sign up to use the land.

That policy is still in place today. "Any member of the College" may book the Fly Club's garden, Epps says. Harvard students, faculty, and staff can arrange to use the land free of charge by contacting Epps's office or speaking to the Fly's steward, the dean explains.

Not many people at Harvard are aware of this opportunity. Epps says the garden has been used about three times each spring and five times each summer in recent years.

The summer users are generally summer-school proctors holding a party for their entryways, says Epps. Recent school-year functions have included receptions for prospective minority freshmen and gatherings of Harvard librarians.

The garden's availability is not described in any College literature, says Epps. Harvard does publish a list of examples of space available to University groups, including the Science Center, Phillips Brooks House, and various classroom buildings. The Fly garden is not on that list, although Epps says, "We should consider putting it on in the future."

Even with Epps's policy and the special lock on the gate, the garden's day-to-day access is limited to Fly members, who use the lawn whenever they please, without requesting special permission. The fence at the garden's fringes effectively prevents everyone else from entering the land.

Why is the fence still up? "That's a good question," says Rosen, who fields questions for the University's affiliated real estate agency. The University's land is not part of the Fly Club, he stresses, "other than the fact that it happens to be temporarily next door."

The University's unusual arrangement with the Fly represents something of a trade-off, Rosen explains. "The Fly Club is given access to it, and in exchange they agree to maintain it. There are no maintenance costs attached to the University."

What does the Fly spend to maintain the garden? Says Charles S. Cheston Jr. '56, the club's graduate president: "There's lawn there, there's bushes, there's trees-I wouldn't begin to put a dollar figure on it."

Cheston says he supports the current arrangement between the club and the University. "I don't think it's unfair," says Cheston, who helps supervise the club's financial affairs. "I can take you to other pieces of Harvard land that students aren't allowed to tromp all over."

Regarding the existence of the fence, Cheston says, "The University is in control of this piece of ground. If they want to take it down, that's their prerogative."

In 1976, a group of students decided the fence did not belong around the University's land. On May 16, about 60 undergraduates climbed into the garden, proclaimed it "People's Field," and held a large party, with Beach Boys music blaring from a Lowell House room and footballs and Frisbees flying.

Fly Club members watched the scene on the other side of a length of string stretched out to mark the boundary between club and University land. "I'm very sympathetic to their point," said one, "but I think running in and doing this is just liable to create chaos."

The issue of the garden's ownership is especially important this year, because all nine final clubs are about to face significant hikes in their property tax bills.

Cambridge is currently in the last stages of reassessing every property in the city at 100 percent of its market value. Previous assessments reflected only a fraction of that value.