Instead of hanging around the housing projects they live in, 48 Cambridge children spent last summer going to local museums, beaches, even camping in the mountains of New Hampshire, under the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program (CYEP) run by Harvard students.

And instead of working in some lawyer's office last summer, six Harvard undergraduates spent last summer showing CYEP kids the city, and even slipping in some education on the side.

CYEP is only one of the many volunteer programs Harvard students and administrators run in the community. Approximately 1100 undergraduates participate, principally through Phillips Brooks House (PBH)-sponsored programs like CYEP, and, also, since last fall, through a University run program that links each Harvard House with one of the 13 neighborhoods in Cambridge. These programs, which range from coaching youth soccer leagues to "adopting" grandparents to answering telephones in a public service office, give students a chance to work closely with the larger community of Cambridge, bringing University resources to local residents.

Although PBH has been around since the 1920s, the University has only recently begun to respond to community needs, says Cambridge Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, adding "We're seeing big change from the last 300 years in community relations."

CYEP, for instance, is "more than fun and games," says Jay McLeod '83, the program's co-ordinator and head of the Phillips Brooks House Association, the undergraduate service organization that sponsors the program. In order to go on the outings, students must attend daily classes in "more conventional educational things," such as reading novels and writing. Each Harvard student teaches about eight children, and readings, although obligatory, are meant to be fun. One group last summer read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, while McLeod led his group in putting together a magazine. Besides the CYEP, PBH's 23 student-run committees include one to deal with the problems of Cambridge's homeless, one youth recreational program, and several related to problems of the elderly.

As of this year, however, PBH is not the only route to community services. Concerned over town-gown relationships. President Bok last spring prompted the University to set in motion a new program which links Undergraduate Houses with Cambridge neighborhoods. The fledgling setup, says organizer Wayne Meisel '82 in a report on the House and Neighborhood Development Project (HAND), has engendered "fundamental cultural, ethnic and civic ties."

Timothy M. Bechtold '84, one of the Winthrop House residents active in that House's outreach programs to the Tobin School of Cambridge, says Winthrop students have helped the school form street hockey, indoor soccer and basketball leagues, taught classes in knitting and gymnastics, and supervised an "open gym" program.

"We're donating our values to the kids for them to pick up," Bechtold says. Judith Y. Shields '84 chairman of the active Currier committee, points to the $10,000 her House donated to the Jefferson Park housing project in the Fitzgerald neighborhood--the proceeds of the winter's dance marathon--as a major project.

Relations between Harvard and the surrounding community have traditionally been less than cordial. But even Vellucci, ordinarily a piercing anti-University voice, notes that "Harvard has been reponding as of late, by working with the city government, especially the school department."

But he quickly adds that he will keep putting pressure on the University, explaining, "Huge corporations can become lackadaisical."

Volunteers, however, are not bothered by town-gown tensions. "At first, some people have feelings of animosity toward us, but by getting a base of personal friendship with the kids and their parents we go past that," says McLeod of his work with CYEP.

Gretchen Klopfer '84, chairman of the PBH Education Committee, says that in her work at a writing/tutoring center at Jefferson Park she does run across occasional prejudice. "But if you have the attitude of 'Here I am, I want to work in the community' instead of marching in and taking over, it isn't much of a problem," she adds.

Although she worries that she is being "too Pollyanna-ish," Harvard Director of Community Affairs Jackie O'Neill says that student volunteer programs are the best form of community relations because they "break down the superstitions involved when institutions deal with institutions."

Robin Schmidt, vice president for government and community affairs, agrees. "My office could work for 80 years and I don't think we could replace the work of 10 students," he says.

Community officials, too, are pleased with the volunteers. "Our experience has been very, very positive, particularly with linking Harvard Houses with neighborhoods," and giving city officials access to Harvard resources, says Jill Herold, assistant city manager for human services.