Money

$10,540.

Not too long ago, that amount of money went a long way towards the down payment on a new house in American suburbia. Next year, it will be the price tag for a year as an undergraduate at Harvard-Radcliffe--minus transportation, expenses and fees.

The bad--but not unexpected--news came from the Corporation in mid-January, when it announced that rapidly rising energy costs and general inflation had boosted the tuition, room and board rate into the five-figure range. The increase of 15 per cent over last year's figure of $9170 marks the largest jump in recent memory, and most of the graduate schools followed the College's move by hiking their tuition rates by 15 per cent as well.

In raising the price for a Harvard education, the Corporation pointed out that the increase is no more than the average national increase in disposable personal income, that it will not deter potential applicants from coming to Cambridge, and that it will allow the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to keep up with double-digit inflation. Although the Faculty registered a small surplus of $167,000 for the 1979-80 academic year (its fourth in a row), it anticipates a deficit of $785,000 for the just-ending year. And because tuition is one of the most malleable parts of the Faculty's budget, officials say they must turn to it to meet increasing costs. "We cannot be an island of stability in a sea of rapidly growing inflation," Dean Rosovsky said in announcing the tuition figures for '81-'82.

Finance officials blame energy prices for drastically increasing University costs in recent years. From 1979-80 to 1980-81, the Faculty's energy budget jumped an astronomical 52.6 per cent; and the energy budget increased ninefold during the '70s--from $3 million in 1970 to $27 million last year. In an attempt to cut down on these costs, the Faculty last summer commissioned an investigation team to examine energy consumption in a number of its buildings. As a result, officials say, energy consumption may be halved over the next five years.

University moneyminders are hoping, however, that a drop in the amount of federal aid Harvard receives annually will not offset the energy savings. Although last September the Senate authorized $48.4 billion to fund student aid programs over the next five years, the Reagan administration budget cuts portend hard times for both financial aid money and University research funds. While families braced themselves for hefty tuition increases, Harvard scientists and scholars began to look for other sources to subsidize their projects.

One potential source of relief, the $250-million, five-year fund drive (the "Harvard Campaign") fared quite well this year, despite the woes wrought by inflation. To kick off Year Two, which began in mid-October, President Bok and Dean Rosovsky began touring cities nationwide with other prominent University affiliates. By the time the fledgling effort turned 18 months old, fundraisers had garnered more than $18 million, slightly less than half of the target figure--and it looks like it will be easy going for the rest of the Campaign.

The added income from the fund drive may seem like nothing compared with the University's endowment--which settled at an impressive $1.49 billion by the end of fiscal 1980--but Harvard Management Co. nonetheless kept a look out for ways to beef up Harvard's portfolio. The University's increased participation in venture capitalism was symbolized by its recent investment in a robot-systems company, revealed last October.

By far the most surprising investment move, however, was the University's quiet sale, beginning in October, of about $50 million in Citibank notes and certificates. The largest sale resulting from the University's three-year-old policy against leaving its money in banks lending directly to the apartheid government of South Africa, the transaction did not become public until mid-February, prompting criticism of the Corporation's secrecy from the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) and other University affiliates.

And in what is becoming an annual tradition, the Corporation continued to abstain on most shareholder resolutions concerning South Africa. It was revealed this spring that, as usual, the fellows may have been shooting for number one: In 1979-80, the University cast more abstentions on shareholder resolutions than any other college or university. Tuition, Room and Board Costs   Total  % Rise 1981-82  10,540  15% 1980-81  $9170  12.6% 1979-80  $8140  9.7% 1978-79  $7428  7.7% 1977-78  $6900  7.3%