HARVARD HOPES that undergraduates will lead its expansion across the Charles River into Allston, according to reports by various faculty task forces released this month. The university needs to convince neighborhood residents that the move is in their interest as well.

The Undergraduate Life Task Force is clear that at least 1,050 students will be living across the Charles in three undergraduate residences. These would replace housing in the Radcliffe area of Cambridge, which would become living space for graduate students.

Nothing in the task force reports is final, but the statement on undergraduate housing seems definitive. It dovetails with the recommendation of the Science and Technology Task Force, which proposes a massive expansion of research facilities in Allston. Undergraduates in the expanded science curriculum envisioned by Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers, would do laboratory work there.

The Undergraduate Life Task Force wants the new residences directly on the Charles. This could mean impinging on the playing fields that comprise most of the unbuilt Harvard land along the river. Some residents worry that this would wall off part of the Charles from the neighborhood.

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gave the land to Harvard in 1870. "We are getting up a subscription to buy some gardens and walks to be kept open forever," he wrote in 1869. Longfellow's words lend moral authority to neighborhood concerns. The university needs to make sure abundant green space is accommodated in the final plan. The prospect of 1,050 additional students in Allston encouraged the task force to consider innovative ways to get them back and forth to classes, most of which will still be in Cambridge. The Allston Life Task Force ruled out hugely expensive projects such as a monorail but suggested a new bridge across the river or a widening of the Larz Anderson span. Allston residents should be included in the planning to make sure any changes serve their needs as well.

The Allston Life Task Force proposed four visions for commercial development on land away from the riverfront. Two would cater to a student clientele, but two others propose a mix of shopping and cultural activities that could appeal to the entire neighborhood. If the neighbors want shops that meet their needs, Harvard should provide them.

The university will soon hire one of four firms, none from Boston, to do a master plan. Although some have experience on other Boston projects -- Rafael Vinfoly, for instance, designed the South Boston Convention Center -- none has expertise in Allston's particular problems. Harvard would be wise to seek out planners familiar with the area to make sure that what's good for the university is acceptable and beneficial to its neighbors.

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