Houses To Face Sparer Funds

After initially mandating that House Masters cut their annual budgets by 15 percent earlier this semester—in line with trimming guidelines for most departments within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—Harvard’s administration is now forcing Houses to slash yearly budgets by a quarter.

To comply with the 25 percent reduction in their budgets, House Masters, resident deans, and other House administrators said they will have to reduce the number and quality of student activities in their Houses—including Masters’ Open Houses and study breaks—and may have to reduce tutor meal plans and reconfigure some staff positions altogether.

The possibility of layoffs among House staff has caused Masters to react with both “astonishment and chagrin,” said one House Master, who wished to remain unnamed, in an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday.

For the last three decades, the number of employees serving in House Offices has stayed constant, said Lowell House Master Diana L. Eck in an interview with The Crimson on Wednesday.

In Lowell, she said, two full-time House Office employees—a House administrator and a staff assistant—have handled the archiving and maintenance of student records, including those of recent alumni.

The staff assistant—a position called the assistant to the resident dean in some Houses—is closely involved in the paperwork related to pre-law, pre-med, and graduate school records and letters.

But now, the College administration is asking Eck and other Masters to convert the staff assistant position into a half-time job. As a result, one administrator may have to handle files from two Houses—which would require overseeing more than 700 student files in some cases, Eck said.

In addition, the individual would only be employed for 10 months of the year. But because of the staff assistant’s role in post-undergraduate file upkeep, this schedule “would not be helpful” to students, Eck said, adding that pre-med application work occurs during the summer.

While House office staff size has remained constant over the years, the number of employees in the central College administration has increased significantly. In the last 10 years, 230 additional administrative staff across FAS have been added to the College payroll, Eck said.

Eck called this trend a “misplaced emphasis in terms of the weight of central College staff” and noted that the Advising Programs Office has expanded from one to six staffers, for example, while the majority of academic advising happens in the Houses and departments.

Potential changes to the staff assistant position reflect Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith’s comments during Tuesday’s town hall meeting, when he called for a broad-based restructuring of the College in response to a budget deficit of $220 million.

House Masters, who said they were frustrated with a “moving target” of budget-cut expectations, added that they would oppose any “fait accompli” (irreversible mandate) calling for staff cuts. The increased—and changing—requirements to trim House budgets have prevented House Masters from finalizing their annual budgets, which are usually submitted in January.

Resistance to staff reduction from House Masters has been echoed recently by students, who have been protesting layoffs in other parts of the University since early last month.

The potential for House staff layoffs comes in the wake of College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds’ release of the Report on Harvard House Renewal earlier this month, a report that calls for sweeping, specific improvements to House life.

The report recommends upgrading House staff while decreasing the administrative workload of tutors. But decreasing House staff would effectively derail those two goals, House Masters said.

FAS Director of Communications Robert P. Mitchell wrote in an e-mail to the Crimson that the College is “carefully considering how to maintain the possible standards while reducing costs wherever possible.”

He added that departments across the College are considering budget-cut proposals and that no final decisions have been made.

—Staff writer Bita M. Assad can be reached at bassad@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Ahmed N. Mabruk can be reached at amabruk@fas.harvard.edu.