FAS Budgets Stay Flat Post-Crisis

With departmental budget proposals for the 2013 fiscal year due earlier this month, many department administrators in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ smaller departments said that the funds available to them have not increased since the 2008 financial crisis.

“We’re not making radical cuts the way we were during the worst part of the financial crisis, but we’re also not reinstating things we cut,” said Julie A. Buckler, chair of the department of Slavic Languages and Literature. “We’re holding steady.”

Budget cuts over the last few years have proven effective in returning FAS to financial stability and the budget is on track to reach a “structural, long-term balance by the end of the current fiscal year,” Associate Dean for Finance Eric Kopstain wrote in an email.

Yet several department administrators said there is little indication that their departments will see the financial austerity relax in the near future.

“We’ve stayed flat, with the exception of payroll,” said another department administrator in the humanities, who wished to remain anonymous due to the confidential nature of departmental budgets. “This is the new normal.”

Janet Hatch, director of administration in the History department, said she is bracing her department for the continued challenges of a leaner operation.

“We still have to be careful, and careful going forward. There is no indication that things are going to suddenly get better in the future,” she said.

NAVIGATING HARD TIMES

Departments have seen their resources and faculty shrink since Dec. 2008, when Harvard’s endowment decreased in value by nearly 30 percent and FAS Dean Michael D. Smith predicted a decreased in value by nearly 30 percent and FAS Dean Michael D. Smith predicted a two-year, $220 million FAS deficit.

As the value of Harvard’s investments decreased, the 5 to 5.5 percent of the endowment that the University typically allocates for school budgets annually decreased as well.FAS, which relies on interest generated by the endowment for roughly half of its annual budget, saw the distribution it received from the University decrease by 12 percent in the 2010 fiscal year and then 8 percent in FY 2011.

According to one department administrator in the humanities, the period immediately following FAS’s fiscal downturn was marked by collaboration between department administrators and University Hall to determine the scope and scale of the cutbacks.

“I was extremely pleased by how the faculty, staff, and even students came together to help resolve projected shortfalls in our core budget. As a faculty, we spent a lot of time talking about the challenges confronting us and what we had to do to overcome them,” Smith said.

In the current academic year, FY 2012, the FAS deficit decreased to $16 million and distribution to FAS rose by 4 percent. But Smith acknowledged that certain needs remained unfulfilled across a variety of disciplines.

“Everybody feels the impacts of operating under more limited resources than in past years. I don’t think there is a department that doesn’t wish for a bigger budget,” Smith said.

TRIMMING THE FAT

Not all departments are facing the same constraints—for example, four new faculty searches have been authorized in the history department, in addition to another three in economics.But in several small departments, perennial problems such as the loss of faculty to other institutions and faculty retirement still have not been relieved by continued hiring.

For example, the Classics department has yet to receive an authorization for a new tenure-track position even though two junior faculty have left since the financial crisis.Increased oversight over department budgets has been a major result of the fiscal downturn, as department administrators and FAS deans work together to navigate the existing constraints.

One administrator, who also asked to remain anonymous due to the confidential nature of the budgeting process, said that her department was asked to justify each and every part of the budget when the financial crisis first hit.

Some departments have not been able to procure visiting faculty—usually an important resource when permanent hires cannot be made.Other areas of spending have fallen victim to hard times as well. According to Classics department administrator Teresa Wu, the number of department-sponsored lectures has also dropped.

The consequence of this new oversight is a tighter, more efficient allocation of resources, administrators said.“It’s made the faculty aware of what can reasonably be expected,” Hatch said.

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Kevin J. Wu can be reached at kwu@college.harvard.edu.