Faculty Votes To Raise Termbill to $35

After several months of meetings with President Neil L. Rudenstine and other members of the Central Administration, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Resources Committee returned to the Faculty yesterday, to report the results of their discussions on the central administration's proposed infrastructure fund.

The Faculty also approved the motion brought by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 to raise the optional Undegraduate Council terrmbill fee from $20 to $35 for the coming academic year, and voted to give the Dean of the College the power to raise the fee in the future in consultation with the Faculty Council.

The Faculty approved this measure without dissent, as expected. Last month the increase was unanimously approved by the Faculty Council.

The preparation of land in Allston for use by the University will include purchasing easement rights from current owners, environmental cleanup of land formerly under industrial use, moving current tenants and highway onramps, and beginning a long-term planning process for the land, according to Professor of Government Gary L. King, who presented the report of the Resource Committee at yesterday's Faculty meeting.

"We strongly endorse the need for an infrastructure fund, and we are very pleased with the developments in our discussions," he said.

At this point, the University plans to employ an architectural firm that will begin to envision possible uses for the land-but will not to plan for specific building at present, as some Faculty members had feared.

King also explained that the committee-in consultation with the central administration-had explored other funding possibilities but concluded that the proposed model was the only feasible one.

The administration's proposed plan will tax the endowments of each of Harvard's schools at the same rate, rather than the school's operating budgets, as the current funding structure for the central administration functions.

King said that an additional tax on the schools' operating budgets would put an excessive strain on their resources.

The resources committee also explored using different tax rates on the endowments of the different schools, but King said that such non-uniform taxing of endowments is illegal.

The central administration re-iterated that the University would only continue the proposed funding structure for five years, and that it would not serve as a precedent for future funding.

King said that decisions regarding use of the fund would be made by the President and deans of the schools, after being reviewed by an infrastructure committee that would include representatives of the schools, Corporation members and representatives of the central administration. Such a committee would likely include two members of the FAS faculty.

Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol said faculty input should always be present in important University-wide decisions.

"Now that it's clear that such models may be come necessary for other expenditures in the future, we need new permanent structures of governance that are transparent and palpably fair," Skocpol said.