A Record Year for Portfolios

Although last year's financial report has not yet been finalized, officials this week estimated that the market value of Harvard's portfolio rose last year, reaching a record $1.45 billion.

Administrators also predicted that the University ended up with a very slight surplus in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1977. Thomas O'Brien, financial vice president, this week said he believes the University ran about $800,000 in the black.

This is only the second time since 1972-73 that Harvard managed to avoid a deficit. But the black ink has appeared in two consecutive years, an optimistic sign to administrators haunted by inflation during the earlier part of this decade.

Neither the roughly 6 per cent increase in the endowment nor the small surplus have smoothed all the furrows in financial foreheads.

The endowment did rise last year, but at half the rate of the previous year's increase. And the balanced budget, administrators stress, is a sign of restraints and cutbacks, not new-found financial stability.