FAS to Close Buildings Over Mid-Year Break

Faculty operations will close down to the maximum extent possible over the Thanksgiving weekend and for the three-week Christmas vacation this year in order to save roughly $150,000 in fuel costs, Dean Whitlock said last night.

A savings of approximately $50,000 will be made by reducing heat in classrooms, libraries, laboratories and museums during the vacations, and about another $100,000 can be taken off vacation-fuel costs by closing up Houses and dormitories, he said.

No Program Yet

Whitlock added, however, that the $150,000 estimate is only a "rough guess" since the Faculty has not yet developed any program for closing any of these buildings.

According to the Faculty's own estimates it will run a deficit of about $1 million this year on a total budget of more than $50 million. Dean Rosovsky said this week that he will try to eliminate the deficit by reductions in the non-teaching side of the budget.

Richard G. Leahy, associate dean of the Faculty for resources and planning, said yesterday he did not know whether students or other people living in the Houses will be allowed to stay in their Harvard rooms during this year's vacation. "It's a little early to tell what we're going to do," he said, but added that a definite policy will probably be developed "within the next few weeks."

Whitlock said last night that the Faculty will not lengthen Christmas vacation this year in order to reduce heating costs. Though Rosovsky told The Crimson Tuesday that he was considering such a change, he said last night that he and The Crimson had "misunderstood" each other.

Whitlock said that "no one is considering changing the calendar" this year by lengthening Christmas vacation in order to reduce heating costs.

The Faculty will continue, however, to consider a permanent change in the College's academic calendar, he said.

Leahy said last night that although Christmas vacation will not be extended this year, he has been "instructed by the Dean [Rosovsky] to gather data when operations are closed during Christmas that will allow us to evaluate the financial implications" of a permanent calendar change