Deans Don't Plan Drastic Change With Payout

For some in the Harvard administration, it was hard to overstate the importance of yesterday's boost in endowment payout.

"This will lead to an intellectual renaissance," says Harvard spokesperson Alex Huppe. "We could be talking about the next Nobel here."

But Harvard's top accountants are not so sure. And, by the end of next year, Harvard students could have their doubts as well.

"This isn't the biggest thing that has happened by any means," says Elizabeth C. "Beppie" Huidekoper, Harvard's vice president for finance.

But, Huidekoper says, "It's of genuine value."

While the deans of the individual schools will reap the windfall of this decision, they did not begin the process which led to this decision, according to officials,.

Instead, President Neil L. Rudenstine and the other members of the Corporation-Harvard's governing body-got the ball rolling earlier this year. The deans accepted this proposal and have spent the fall planning "very ambitious programs" to take advantage of this bonanza, according to Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and its dean, Jeremy R. Knowles, stand to gain the most from the payout increase by virtue of FAS's control over 40 percent of the total endowment.

Already, Knowles made national headlines with a $9 million financial aid boost for undergraduates, made possible in part by the endowment change.

Knowles says graduate students and undergraduates can expect more as a result of the endowment payout increase, "anything from a mouse house to faculty to infrastructure."

Topping his list, he says, are "substantial increases" in graduate student aid. Also on Knowles' list are more money for faculty research and compensation, as well as major building improvements.

According to Beth S. Brainard, a spokesperson for the Harvard College Library System, part of FAS's money will help diverse projects such as renovations to Widener Library's central heating system to protect some of its fragile holdings, renovations to Lamont Library and a project designed to make books accessible online.

Lastly Knowles, himself an award winning chemist, says "We must make some real investments in science." Exactly what shape those "investments" will take is not yet clear. Knowles says they might be buildings, but will probably also focus on strengthening new fields, like genomics.

But it seems very unlikely the FAS gains will result in lower tuition anytime soon, nor will they increase the size of the Faculty to provide for smaller classes.

In reality, about half of Knowles's $40 million is in "restricted" funds-limited to a particular purpose. The library system and the Athletics Department are two areas within FAS that will receive several million dollars out of their own restricted funds. The other $20 to $25 million may be spent at Knowles's discretion.

Huidekoper praised the increase, calling it an opportunity to "make some real investments".

But, in the end, $25 million dollars can hardly be expected to transform a school with a budget of over a billion dollars.

And although other deans of the graduate schools also welcomed the extra windfall, none are planning grandiose new changes either. Deans interviewed indicated that the funds would primarily go towards strengthening established programs.

At the Medical School, Dean Joseph B. Martin says his priorities for the money include increased student aid, two new faculty chairs and the funding of new interdisciplinary programs.

Martin also plans to sink money into information technology, and is exploring both research computing and distance learning.

Harvard's smaller schools, with commensurately smaller endowment, also have plans for the increased funds they will receive. Jerome T. Murphy, dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE) says the University's move is "wonderful for us."

Endowment income supplies Murphy with a quarter of his school's annual budget. GSE's one million dollar injection of funds will allow for the strengthening of established programs.

Murphy says he will now be able to increase student financial aid, improve technology and infrastructure and hire teaching fellows in order to lower the GSE's high student to faculty ratio.

In the School of Dental Medicine, Dean R. Bruce Donoff, says he plans to increase financial aid and develop a center for biomedical engineering research established jointly with the Medical School.

And in the School of Public Health, Dean James H. Ware says he will use the money to buy new technology for laboratory research and new space for classrooms and research.