"It's almost certain that we'll sign a 15-year lease," Epps said yesterday.

And the upcoming lease agreement will likely include a provision for the College to relocate the publication to another location if academic needs for the space arise.

"If conditions change, and everybody understands that, it's not that you back out of the lease...but we will find a place for the Advocate at Harvard," Epps said.

Advocate leaders said they are upset by the provision that may force the magazine to move against its will.

"I fail to understand the real meaning of a so-called lease if the landlord can end it at any time at his discretion," Savage said.

The lease negotiations come at a time when the Advocate is set to begin renovations on the Advocate House, which is in need of $60,000 in repairs.

Advocate trustees hosted a fundraiser--attended by alumni including Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, Norman K. Mailer '43, Conan C. O'Brien '85 and Epps--on New York's East Side last Thursday to raise money for renovations to the building.

"We're ready to go ahead" with the renovations, said Advocate President Daley C. Haggar '98, who is also a former Crimson executive.

Haggar and Savage said that the president of the magazine's trustees, Douglas A. McIntyre '77, has suggested that the trustees are already looking for a new home for the Advocate.

"I trust [the University] not to give us some apartment in the Quad," Savage said