Libraries, Professorships Still Lack Funds as FAS Nears Campaign Finish Line

With just eight months left in the six year long Capital Campaign set to raise $2.1 billion for Harvard, the University's flagship school is the only one still short of its goals.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the academic heart of Harvard and whose fundraising needs made up almost half of the campaign's original goal, still remains $48 million short.

Laura W. Smith, associate dean of development communications, calls the campaign "the hallmark of the president's tenure."

Every other school--business, dental, design, divinity, the Kennedy School of Government, law, medical, education and public health--has reached its original goal. With their new funds and what FAS has accumulated so far, Harvard has pulled in $1.98 billion since the start of the campaign in May of 1994.

And Harvard's administration is confident that FAS' goals will be met, and in time.

"Indeed, I trust we'll go over the top!" Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles wrote in an e-mail message.

To reach those goals, the University is considering changes in its fundraising strategies, aiming at pulling in more money for the library system--still $30 million short of its goal--and endowed professorships, of which 16 of a planned 40 have not yet been funded.

The Stragglers

University officials hope that mega benefactor Katherine B. Loker started a trend with her $14 million gift to the library system last year.

According to Nancy M. Cline, Larsen librarian of Harvard College, Harvard's library system will use the funds it collects in the campaign to continue to maintain its historical collection while adding very modern features.

Renovations to Widener already under way will eventually add a climate control system to preserve the aging texts and a digitization program to put more resources on line.

Director of the University Library Sidney Verba '53 says that library donations have always been notoriously hard to come by.

"Everybody loves the library, but it is everybody's second most favorite part of the University," says Verba, who is also Pforzheimer University professor.

Thomas M. Reardon, Harvard's vice president for alumni affairs and development, says that donors may want a more personal feel to their gift than a library donation can bring.

"Donors are most interested in things that have a human dimension to them," Reardon says.

William H. Boardman, associate vice president for capital giving, agrees that meeting the library's needs may not seem so glorious to potential donors.

"Technology in general and air conditioning, doing things like infrastructure, are the hardest things to raise money for," Boardman says. "Most donors are interested in people."

Verba thinks that problem may stem from the role libraries play in student life--a resource used often, but not the real center of academics that a departmental building or office may be.

"People don't major in the library," Verba says. "The people who are most interested in the library usually are graduate students who become professors--who then don't have the money to give."

But Verba says that the University is committed to raising enough funds to complete the Widener renovations.

Campaign officials say they hope to reach their goals in endowed professorships as well. Each new chair costs the donor $3.5 million--so those who can't afford such a price tag simply don't give in this area.

"It was a very ambitious goal to try to add 40 chairs," Boardman says. "It's a combination of being a high goal and also that it is not easy for an individual to give 3.5 million dollars."

Strategizing

Everybody hopes that the last months of the campaign will show rapid improvement in fundraising for the library and for professorships, and officials are developing strategies to speed up the process.

The method they may choose to improve giving for professorships is called the "challenge method" and worked well earlier in the campaign to solicit funds for financial aid.

The first step of this method is to accumulate a fund made up of large, unrestricted gifts--by far the most difficult step.

The University then uses this "challenge fund" to bring in new gifts. Donors will have their donations "matched" with a gift from the fund with all the money given in their name.

By effectively cutting the price of an endowed chair by a large margin, this method could prove attractive to potential donors turned off by the large price tag before.

Harvard is attempting a different tactic to raise library funds, choosing instead to educate potential donors about the benefits of giving.

The best example of this was a "library weekend" several weeks ago for potential donors.

Verba says that there were two points he wanted to convey to the alumni--the uniqueness of Harvard's immense historical collection and the steps Harvard is taking towards more modern library technologies.

Cline says that in addition to educating potential donors about the importance of library funding, it is important to explain to previous donors the impact of their gifts.

Donors who feel that they made an important contribution with their funds will spread the word, according to Cline.

"There is nothing to match the enthusiasm of a donor speaking to someone else about the importance of a gift," she says.

The library is working to find ways to recognize those donors who have already improved the library.

Cline says that the library puts honorary plates in books and plaques on walls to recognize donors who have donated money for projects like book preservation and building renovation. The library may also dedicate spaces to big givers like Loker, who recently saw Widener Library's reading room renamed in her honor.

"It's our job to find ways to help people understand the importance of their gift. "Cline says. "Some donors wish to remain totally anonymous, but many do like some form of recognition."

The Final Months

Despite the slow start, administrators say that funds for the library will turn up.

"We must do the library--we have no choice," says Harvey V. Fineberg '67, Harvard's provost. "We owe it to our successors."

And with the initial priorities of the campaign like the Barker Center and financial aid funding out of the way, more energy can be spent on the sections that trail behind, Verba says.

"A lot of time is being spent figuring out how to readjust our efforts in funding," Boardman says.