Harvard's Computing Center will provide computer time and instruction at reduced rates to undergraduate thesis writers this winter.

The $175 service will be offered from December 1 to March 31 and provide unlimited use of the Center. HIM mainframe computer, enough space to the computer to store 500 pages and nine hours of instruction.

A slight additional fee will be charged for printing costs, center manager Peter J. Heffernan said this week.

Similar four month plans targeted towards graduate students began in October, explained Zack J. Deal, the package's designer. The center created the new session to better cover the time needed by honors seniors, he added.

"These are the four months that many people who write honors theses need in work on computers," Deal said, added he will "strongly discourage graduate students from joining" the December to March class, for which 10 students have already registered.

Heffernan and Deal explained that this offer is designed to reduce costs and provide more structured help for computer users.

Until now, students needing computer time had to pay by the hour and often ran up bills of over

Heffernan added that the center will also pass on savings by replacing one on one tutoring sessions with 25-student classes. The new offering will save instructor time and teach users about features of the computer they may never learn about on their own, he said.

Faculty members interviewed said the new package will aid thesis writers considerably.

"Anything when makes word processors more available" will help students, said Doanld W. Walls, the Economics Department head tutor.

He said over has the thesis writers in economics last year used computers at some point in their work.

Walls the adds, "however, that he believe the computer trend is moving "away from mainframes and torward personal computers."

History Department Head Tutor Simon M. Schama praised the increase in speed and stylistic editing which the word processers will provide.

The availability of computers may help to ease the "unavailable panic" that accompanies these writing, he said.