Finance VP Confident as Budget Emerges

With the University-wide budget for next fiscal year set to hit her desk later this month, Vice President for Finance Ann E. Berman said she maintains confidence in the fiscal health of each of Harvard’s 10 schools, including the beleaguered Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

In an interview Friday, Berman said FAS would weather lackluster fundraising returns and avoid posting a deficit in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

A report in The Crimson last month revealed donations to FAS were 24 percent short of budgeted expectations through the end of February, the result of a perilous dearth of gifts to construction projects.

“If it’s just one year and people understand why it’s happening, it’s not as significant a problem as if it represented a trend,” Berman said, though she declined to comment on The Crimson’s specific numbers.

Berman said FAS continues to operate under a tight fiscal belt, having already taken on such major projects as the curricular review, expansion of the Faculty and construction in the North Yard. And the relatively small surplus of $2.3 million posted by FAS last fiscal year has led administrators to reign in certain areas of the budget.

“They are apparently trying to be cautious and prudent in making commitments for which they don’t have money,” Berman said.

RAISING FUNDS, BUILDINGS

Last month, the University declined to announce a dollar figure at which its much-heralded Stem Cell Institute would be funded, leaving unclear the extent of Harvard’s commitment to the new venture and the ability of FAS, a major partner, to devote its precious funds to the institute.

Berman said Friday the University had yet to make a decision on how much money the institute would receive. And University spokesperson Joe Wrinn, who sat in on the interview with Berman, said the venture would remain a “virtual institute,” without a physical location, for the indefinite future.

Looming over preparations for next fiscal year’s budget is Harvard’s ongoing preparation for a new campus in Allston, which has already imposed a burden on budgets at schools across the University. A 25-year tax on endowment income, which disproportionately affects FAS, is expected to partially fund Allston land purchase and construction.

But Berman said fundraising for Allston has yet to commence and would be held off until more concrete plans for the campus were formed. And any shortage in construction gifts now, Berman said, would not be indicative of future efforts to raise funds for Allston because donors will have a far clearer conception of the final product in years to come.

SQUEEZING BUDGETS

Berman’s University-wide budget is slated for a vote of the Corporation, Harvard’s highest governing body, at its meeting on June 9, the day prior to commencement.

The numbers the Corporation will see are likely to represent the University’s perpetual financial crunch, exacerbated this year by a sputtering economy and rising benefit costs, which overshot projections. The Corporation voted in December to increase payout from the endowment for next fiscal year by 4 percent, a meager figure but still larger than previous threats of a 0 or 2 percent increase.

The payout increase is likely to remain firm at 4 percent for next fiscal year, Berman said, leaving Harvard’s schools, especially those heavily reliant on the endowment, with little wiggle room in their budgets.

Berman said she did not expect any of Harvard’s schools to post a deficit in the current fiscal year, though she added, “I don’t know for sure.”

As part of the University’s fiscal squeeze, Berman and University President Lawrence H. Summers had committed to holding their own internal budget, for the central administration, at 0 percent growth for next fiscal year. A visibly proud Berman said Friday they remained on target to meet that goal.

Berman’s interview with The Crimson, in the vice president’s spacious Mass. Hall office, occurred under the immediate specter of a rally on Mass. Hall protesting layoffs at Harvard’s libraries, most of which fall under the budget of FAS (see story, page A1).

Berman said rising costs for journals and books were outpacing the University’s income, forcing cuts at the libraries. But she said decisions on whether to allocate funds to journals or employees, while included in the final University-wide budget, did not fall under her purview.

“It’s at a level of detail that we don’t spend a lot of time on,” Berman said.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.