FAS To Announce Plan for Budget Cuts

Top administrators in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will release a preliminary, across-the-board fiscal plan for FAS this week—a move aiming to bring some clarity to a muddled financial picture as the Faculty begins to prepare its tightened budget next week.

The “80% FAS-wide plan” marks an early attempt by Faculty administrators to begin turning localized feedback from individual units within FAS into a more generalized scheme for cutbacks that will show for the first time how departmental priorities fit into the Faculty’s larger budgeting plan.

In December, Smith urged all departments to think about how to cut 10 to 15 percent of their budgets. The move came in anticipation of a projected economic shortfall of at least $100 million in the Faculty’s unrestricted funds for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Departments have since responded with their own plans for how their expenses might be cut. Government Department Chair Nancy L. Rosenblum ’69 said that her unit had made plans for a 15 percent budget cut for the next fiscal year, with cuts tailored to address areas that were not particularly “wounding.”

“We worked hard to find places where it wouldn’t touch our core business,” she said.

But there is no guarantee that the final plan, drawing on recommendations from departments, centers, and units across FAS will honor all departmental priorities, nor will it produce equal levels of cuts in all areas.

“Not all units have the same capacity to absorb cuts,” Smith wrote in a letter sent to faculty and staff to announce the upcoming 80% plan. “Nor is it wise for us to reduce everyone equally if continued excellence is our goal.

The 80% plan will help planners get a big-picture model to help with the budget-planning process for next year, which is set to begin in early February, and is typically completed in March.

But as the sobriquet suggests, the fiscal blueprint will not be conclusive. A finalized set of recommendations will be released later this semester.

“‘80%’ means we will provide good information, but we’ll keep working on the total plan as budgeting starts,” Smith wrote in an e-mailed statement. “We need more time than we have to create a solid plan that fully addresses the financial challenge before us.”

In his letter, Smith reiterated a commitment to priorities like the launch of General Education this fall, while suggesting that “other timelines,” like the pace of development in Allston, were subject to adjustment.

Though some department leaders and faculty members interviewed by The Crimson said the details of the 80% plan remain unclear, they expressed willingness to make whatever cuts are prescribed.

“Faculty really have been understanding and uncomplaining and generous,” Rosenblum said. “I think that we have quite good esprit. I think we have a pretty good understanding of the constraints on FAS.”

In addition to the 80% plan, the administration has also been moving forward on other FAS-wide initiatives, a number of which were submitted as suggestions to the Priorities Committee, whose members Smith named in December.

The ad hoc body recently reviewed and endorsed a proposal to change the set points for the heating and cooling of FAS buildings to match those recommended by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers. The two-degree change—to 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter months—could potentially save more than $600,000 a year.

“We have over a million square feet of building space around FAS,” said Scott Haywood, building manager of Kirkland House. “So if you look at what it costs for heating per square foot over the course of a winter, it may very well amount to that kind of money.”

Smith declined to name the other FAS-wide initiatives underway, professing a desire to “communicate the entire plan together [rather] than in a piecemeal fashion.”

—Staff Writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.