Harvard University's plan to take over the Hasty Pudding building has run into several unexpected glitches. Negotiations are taking longer than expected and the building's tenant has filed a lawsuit against its present owner, according to College officials.

Harvard announced last semester that the Institute of 1770, which currently owns the space, had agreed to transfer ownership of the Holyoke Street building to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). The space would then be used primarily as an undergraduate theater.

Although negotiations between Harvard and the graduate board of the Institute of 1770 have occurred since the two groups signed a letter of intent last spring, the two parties have not yet agreed on the terms that would finally make FAS the building's owner.

As a result, the building's traditional occupants will continue to use the space this year but their rights to the building in the future remain uncertain.

"We are in cooperative, congenial negotiations with the graduate board, but they are taking longer than I had hoped," said David P. Illingworth '71, associate dean of Harvard College, who is closely involved in the negotiations.

Institute and College representatives declined to discuss the issues delaying the agreement, but Illingworth said different interpretations of the preliminary letter's wording were a factor.

"Everybody understands, we want this to happen, but it's the little things," Illingworth said.

Illingworth and Associate Dean Georgene B. Herschbach are the College's representatives in the ongoing negotiations. Daniel A. Bress '01, is the liaison between Hasty Pudding Theatricals--part of the Institute of 1770--and Harvard, according to Herschbach.