At the Business School, the future leaders of the business world are playing computer games. It's not Pac-Man, but instead students sell "shires," a mythical cross between a shirt and a tire, in a computer-simulated setting. Participants try to make as much fake money as possible, but the overall object is to learn business strategies and techniques.

The shires market is just one example of Harvard's continuing effort to "computerize," making students and faculty more aware of the new technology. "The pace has quickened," Howard L. esnikoff, associate vice president for information and technology, said last week, adding, "but we're still very much in the exploratory stage."

While officials admit Harvard is not a leader in bringing computer services to students, the University has its own plans for computers. Instead of striving to improve the technological aspect of the machines, the administration is aiming to make them easier for computer illiterates to use, Resnikoff said.

"Harvard doesn't plan to make its contribution in the engineering side of computers," Marcus R. Van Baalen, a manager of data systems in the Office for Information Technology, said, adding, "Instead, we will make our move in the human factor side which is now in the dark ages."

Giving the computer the ability to communicate in the language of the user instead of that of the machine and improving computer displays are the two anticipated improvements, Van Baalen said, adding. "Who's in charge here anyway? We should not be slaves to the computers--they should be our servants."

For now, however, Harvard will leave the engineering of the new technologies to other schools like MIT and Stanford, which have done more work in the computer field than Harvard, according to Van Baalen. "We'll wait for [them] to build a better computer terminal and then we'll buy it off the shelf," he said.

Administrators at other liberal arts schools however, are planning to try and develop advanced computers.

"Computer advances should not be left only to places such as Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley," said Associate Provost William Shipp of Brown University, which recently announced plans to spend up to $70 million in the next six years to make computers available to every student, teacher, and staff member on campus.

"There is a whole range of problems that liberal arts colleges should be dedicated to dealing with," he added.

Last October, Carnegie-Mellon University received widespread publicity when it announced a program to eventually give each of its 5500 students access to a computer terminal.

But, administrators assert that Harvard's unique system of independent schools makes it virtually impossible for the University to establish a comprehensive plan that is comparable to those of other universities.

Administrators cite the separate budgets and specialized needs of each branch of the University as the main causes for the lack of an overall computer network.

"At Harvard, what's good for the College is not always good for the Med School or the Business School," Van Baalen said.

"Harvard is set up quite unlike Brown," Shipp said, "and it is very difficult for them to move in the same direction as us."

"I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to have a grand strategy," Gregory R. Crane '79, assistant manager of the Computer Lab at the Classics Department said, adding that it would become too cumbersome and unwieldy.

"The University should pump in more money, but the initiative should come from the individual departments since they know their own interests best," he added.