No Time Like the Present

There is no question that these are trying times, financially speaking, and Harvard is certainly not immune to market fluctuations. As a result of recent endowment losses, the university is currently undergoing a review of all of its capital spending projects, including its timeline for construction in Allston. However, despite the instinct to reduce spending in light of the current financial climate, Harvard should not delay its planned expansion across the river.

Harvard is committed, first and foremost, to imparting knowledge and facilitating research. Creating a new science complex in Allston will further both of these ends by providing opportunities for academic pursuits and scientific breakthroughs. Harvard has an obligation to pursue these goals to the fullest extent possible and should therefore continue to follow its 50-year plan in Allston.

The alternative—letting funds earmarked for construction sit in Harvard’s endowment, gaining very little interest—stalls the construction process without any noticeable academic or monetary gain. In light of the benefits of expanding on schedule, namely the vast amount of research that can begin to take place once Harvard has additional space, it seems unwise to wait for the market to improve before initiating the expansion process.

In a sense, creating a new section of campus in Allston can be seen as an investment in the endowment. With the added space and higher-quality facilities promised there, Harvard will be able to expand its research capacities, and in so doing draw in money for the university. These facilities will also provide higher-quality education for Harvard’s students—students who will one day become alumni and potentially give back to their alma mater. The better Harvard can prepare these scientific minds for professional careers, the more successful Harvard alumni will be, allowing them to regenerate Harvard’s endowment in the future.

Harvard is both an academic institution and a business, but, in order to maintain its tradition of educational excellence and rigor, it must keep these two interests essentially separate. From the perspective of academics, creating new facilities in Allston will have a profoundly positive effect on the quality of scientific pursuits at Harvard, and that is reason enough to expand as soon as possible.

Harvard must remember its obligations as an institution committed to research, despite the financial situation. We hope that the university will continue full speed ahead and will soon be breaking ground on the other side of the Charles.