One student group, the Harvard-Radcliffe Pre-Medical Society, is included on the state's list. It is unclear whether the society, which had been based in Currier House, is still active.

Alison A. Charello, vice president of Cambridge Savings Bank, confirmed yesterday that the society had an account at the bank. She says the bank, as it does with all inactive accounts, had notified the group by first class mail of their account's status, but the students never responded. So the account was turned over to the state.

"I think that perhaps there are student organizations like this formed, and then the kids graduate and forget about the money," Charello says. "That's too bad, and I hope they see this, and realize the money is still theirs."

Harvard itself may not always make a strong effort to return all the money it owes to individuals. Vice President for Finance Robert H. Scott says that the University has large numbers of small paychecks that do not get sent to people the University cannot easily find.

"We have a large number of small paychecks," Scott says. "So it's not worth Harvard's time to find someone for a paycheck that is, say, $25."

Because of Harvard's own experience, Scott says he is extremely reluctant to impugn the motives of companies who do not always pay the University in a timely fashion.

"Sometimes there is a mistake in the system," Scott says. "Let's say, we wrote the check and you cashed the check. We never got the check because of a bank error. To us, it seems the check was never cashed. These kinds of mistakes don't happen often, but they do happen."

There are an awful lot of companies who won't notify a place like Harvard. Joe Mara, director of claims processing/operations, state treasurer's offic