Faculty Tightens Its Belt

Dean Rosovsky issued a warning to the Faculty this week in a 34-page letter on the budget--which he made a point of delivering almost two weeks before the first Faculty meeting.

Rosovsky told the Faculty Monday that the Corporation may take control of Faculty finances if future budgets continue to project deficits. The Dean did, however, justify the conclusion of his predecessors, Franklin L. Ford, McLean professor of Ancient and Modern History, and John T. Dunlop, of an $888,396 deficit in 1973-74.

But to hold Faculty spending within that deficit, Rosovsky says, will mean many cut-backs. Nearly half of his letter is devoted to an explanation of the possible trade-offs the Faculty may elect.

"Clearly, we have every incentive to retain as much independence as possible in managing our finances, and there is no better way to insure this than by balancing our budgets, Rosovsky wrote.

Another feature of the document is its timing. Never before, Rosovsky said Monday, had a dean released his own statement before the first meeting of the Faculty, this year slated for November 13.

One villain in Rosovsky's report is the graduate school. The dean points out that graduate students make up 30 per cent of all students but provide less than 19 per cent of tuition income. And it is also the graduate school which may have to make the most sacrifices.

Rosovsky suggested first that GSAS enrollment be reduced, although he specified no figures. And such a cut, he continued, may mean added costs in the hiring of teaching fellows. That financial aid be awarded on a merit basis and that grad students be levied higher tuition charges in fourth and fifth years are other possible steps Rosovsky cites.

The effects on the College of the 1973-74 budget are not clear. Tuition will continue to rise, the dean stated, by around $200 every year until at least 1975-76.

Which departments will have to stop holding sherries and which student bodies will have to shrink remains to be seen, but the intent of Rosovsky's letter is to cause a general tightening of belts.