HARVARD TRIMS ITS SAILS

The "tightening of the belt" made necessary by a decrease in income is not a problem which faces Harvard alone. Every college and University in the land is sweating over the same difficulty. A large part of Harvard's funds comes from tuition fees, so that an enrollment slump due to the draft will have its effect directly. For state-endowed institutions the situation is just as serious, however; for they rely partly on enrollment, but much more on appropriations from the state legislatures, who are apt to be more and more chary of grants for education because of the pressure of defense.

The emergency exists, then, in every college, and every college must retrench and scrimp and economize as best it can. The policy at Harvard, as outlined by University officials, is perhaps distinctive because of its far-sighted determination "not to sacrifice long-term gains to solve a temporary crisis." The easiest method of slashing the budget, and one which may be adopted widely, is to reduce salaries. After all, it does seem a plausible argument that teachers should participate in the sacrifices which are everywhere being made for defense. But such a way out would reverse a trend which for two generations this University has striven to encourage: to provide security and reward for brilliant minds. The aim has been to induce great or potentially great educators to come to Harvard and gladly teach, instead of turning to professions which though more lucrative are of less benefit to society. The University a decision to maintain salaries at their present level deserves the highest praise, as evidence of a feeling of responsibility for the future of American education.

The "effort to reduce expenses without damaging education and instruction" will be a puzzler for every department of the University. Since salaries are to remain intact, the ten per cent economics will have to come mainly in administrative expenses: heat, light, telephones, secretarial service, and other non-teaching activities; and in part from not filling vacancies caused by death or the draft. "Unessential" services will have to be shorn off. Senior Faculty members will have to curtail their writing and research in order to take over teaching duties of the younger men called upon for government service. It is a question whether the ten per cent cut will suffice: the estimate is based on the present draft legislation and the present state of world affairs. An unexpectedly greater drop in enrollment would sharpen the crisis, and this could come either from new draft laws or from Seniors who would ordinarily enter graduate school deciding instead to go direct to the many jobs now being created. On the other side of the picture, the enrollment and finances may be somewhat stabilized, it is hoped, by deferments of medical students and students in chemistry, physics; and other fields vital to defense research. Such departments may also have tension relaxed slightly by federal grants for work of national importance. Moreover, if losses from the teaching staff just about offset the decline in student enrollment, as might be expected, an economy for the University will naturally result.

It is hard to make any accurate predictions, except that hard times are ahead. Continual planning and continual revising will be necessary, and many important decisions as to "unessentials" will have to be made under pressure. But if the enunciated attitude of the University is a guidepost for the future, then education will still be the bedrock of democracy when the war has passed into history.