Faust Addresses Junior Parents

University President Drew G. Faust returned to the classroom Friday morning, but to lecture parents rather than students.

Faust addressed an over-capacity crowd of more than 150 junior parents on issues ranging from the College’s new financial aid initiative to academic advising.

Though most of the questions centered on the core initiatives of Faust’s nascent presidency, one query channeled frustration expressed by many undergraduates of late.

“I have heard from my son and his friends that the food quality is going down,” one parent asked to laughter and scattered applause. “Is there anything you can do with discretionary funds from the presidential fund....They’re getting pasta every day. They can’t even stomach it.”

Faust avoided mention of discretionary funds in her response and instead spoke of a trade-off between keeping tuition costs down and reacting to higher food prices.

“If we’re going to keep food at the same level, we’re going to have to figure out how to channel moneys from other uses into the food budget,” Faust said. “We need to address it within the issues of cost.”

In an open letter to the Harvard community last week, HUDS executive director Ted A. Mayer said that “the cost of food has risen precipitously world-wide.”

But Faust said the issue had been the focus of conversations between her, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith, interim Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam, and the House Masters.

“We do not want to be undermining students’ health. We do not want to be undermining community morale,” Faust said. “So we are going to figure out how to address this problem.”

Faust also addressed an issue raised recently on Capitol Hill—the rising cost of higher education amidst ballooning university endowments.

“[Financial aid] programs are very costly for us. You know we have a large endowment but that endowment funds programs and research across a university,” Faust said. “It’s not just a great pot of money that we can dip into.”

U.S. Senator Charles E. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has made a point of criticizing universities for maintaining ample endowment funds at the cost of financial aid, most recently requesting financial data from Harvard and 135 other institutions in January.

The parents weekend event had its lighter moments, with Faust and Pilbeam drawing applause after a question about gender-based styles of leadership.

“I worry about essentializing female traits—I mean I don’t think Margaret Thatcher worried a lot about being too masculine,” she said to laughter. “I’m very collaborative, I often listen to people—all those things could be considered as feminine. But don’t mess with me.”

The room burst into laughter and applause as she turned to Pilbeam for a reaction.

“Right on, sister,” Pilbeam responded.

After the event, some parents expressed dissatisfaction with its short, half-hour duration and the limited time for questions from the audience. Only two audience members were given the opportunity to ask questions.

Many parents were turned away at the door even before the event’s advertised start time because the room was filled to over fire-code capacity, according to Kate Drizos, a staff assistant who helped run the event.

Drizos told the furious parents that no larger venue was available, though many appeared unassuaged.

Parents also noted that many of Faust’s responses, which frequently cited new initiatives, were largely irrelevant because their children are already far along in their college experiences.

“A lot of the questions weren’t specific to the junior class,” said one parent who declined to give her name because she was criticizing the event. “A lot of the initiatives like financial aid don’t really affect our children, so I would have liked to have heard more about how you get your junior now to maybe be focused on graduation.”

Faust noted a few times during the session that many new programs would have little impact on the junior class, but she didn’t give up hope that some of the parents there would see benefits.

“I hope you have younger children,” she said.

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Nathan C. Strauss can be reached at strauss@fas.harvard.edu.