University To Raise $2 Billion In 5 Years

Harvard will try to raise roughly $2 billion in the upcoming five-year fund drive, about half of that for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, President Neil L. Rudenstine said in an interview yesterday.

Rudenstine, the vice presidents, the top deans and budget and fundraising officials met for two days last week to continue planning for the fundraising effort, which will be the largest ever by a university.

At the meeting, administrators came up with a ballpark goal of about $2 billion for the drive, but Rudenstine said the final goal could be anywhere from $1.8 to $2.25 billion.

"All you can do is make your best guess," Rudenstine said of setting a goal for the drive, which will kick off sometime next academic year.

The meeting also marked the first, intensive University-wide effort to look specifically at interfaculty programs that will be part of the campaign. Faculty experts came to brief officials at the retreat on the environment, children and education, health care, the brain and behavior and ethics.

Rudenstine said there are still no solid fundraising goals for interfaculty programs. He said a central fund will include money for the central core of interfaculty programs, "hard to raise funds" for graduate student aid,libraries and computing, a safety net for smallerschools and "a truly flexible fund" for futureneeds.

The size of the central fund is still to bedecided. But Rudenstine said yesterday, "It's veryhard for me to see how that can be less than 10 to15 percent of the campaign."

Rudenstine briefed the Board of Overseers onacademic and campaign plans over the weekend. OnMonday, he met with the Harvard Corporation andtold them the results of the retreat.

Harvard has more than 500 pages of plans forthe various faculties. It now must winnow thoseplans into a "case" for a capital campaign.

"Our clear next task," Rudenstine said, "is totry to produce a coherent distillation."

Rudenstine said the case would be written by"someone who understands the University, whounderstands the academic programs."

Testing Periods

After writing out the case for a campaign,Rudenstine and his team will enter what he calledthe "testing of the case period." He'll show thedocument around and see if it makes sense.

Throughout the case-writing and testing phases,intense planning will proceed for the technicalfundraising campaign, expected to last for fiveyears after the campaign kicks off officially inabout a year.

In the meantime, the preparations will continuefor going public with the campaign, including"constant testing of feasibility...refinement ofthe goals and refinement of the case.

The size of the central fund is still to bedecided. But Rudenstine said yesterday, "It's veryhard for me to see how that can be less than 10 to15 percent of the campaign."

Rudenstine briefed the Board of Overseers onacademic and campaign plans over the weekend. OnMonday, he met with the Harvard Corporation andtold them the results of the retreat.

Harvard has more than 500 pages of plans forthe various faculties. It now must winnow thoseplans into a "case" for a capital campaign.

"Our clear next task," Rudenstine said, "is totry to produce a coherent distillation."

Rudenstine said the case would be written by"someone who understands the University, whounderstands the academic programs."

Testing Periods

After writing out the case for a campaign,Rudenstine and his team will enter what he calledthe "testing of the case period." He'll show thedocument around and see if it makes sense.

Throughout the case-writing and testing phases,intense planning will proceed for the technicalfundraising campaign, expected to last for fiveyears after the campaign kicks off officially inabout a year.

In the meantime, the preparations will continuefor going public with the campaign, including"constant testing of feasibility...refinement ofthe goals and refinement of the case.