The controversial tunnel that Harvard plans to dig underneath Cambridge Street may never see the light of day—but now it has its own e-mail address where fans can send it messages of support.

Administrators with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences recently created the e-mail account—tunnel@fas—to coordinate a support campaign for the embattled tunnel.

Getting official approval from the City of Cambridge for the underground passageway remains the last obstacle in the way of a pet Harvard project, which would build a major new Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS).

Facing a reticent city council—most councillors have said they will not support the project that many Cambridge residents oppose—the Faculty has launched a signature collection effort. And government professors, administrators and others have signed on by the dozens.

Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, who is leading the drive, says she hopes the University’s petition will encourage the city council to avoid “foot-dragging and decision by delay.”

“These buildings need to move ahead,” she says.

The effort is meant to show Cambridge that Harvard affiliates are city residents, too, says Williams Professor of History and Political Science Roderick MacFarquhar, who chairs the government department and signed on to the petition.

“It’s ‘citizens of the government department who live in Cambridge unite,’” he quips. “We’ve got nothing to lose but our tunnel.”

Neither Skocpol nor MacFarquhar say they know how the tunnel@fas e-mail address was set up or how many signatures are currently on the petition.

Officials with Harvard Arts and Science Computing Services, who maintain the Faculty’s e-mail system, decline to explain who had set up the account or when. And an e-mail sent to tunnel@fas inquiring about the status of the petition did not clear up who monitors the account.

“Ms. Hunter is simply a conduit, and not active in the petition effort,” an unsigned reply message said of an assistant who works in University Hall.

The message continued: “The number of signatures is growing, and we are encouraged by the support for the tunnel from the citizens of Cambridge.”

No matter how many people sign on to the petition, Cambridge Mayor Michael A. Sullivan says the effort will make little difference to the city council.

“I probably have 600 names on another petition that says ‘no,’” Sullivan says.

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