Housing Budget Cuts Continue

Ten months ago, a struggling endowment forced the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to cut up to 25 percent of the Houses’ budgets.

The reductions took many forms. Some eliminated jobs held by undergraduate students, while others limited the number of non-resident tutors and the perks they received.

House events also faced minor tweaks. The number of events decreased marginally, and preparations for study breaks and Masters’ Open Houses were slightly altered to save money without students noticing.

While administrators and tutors can speak at length about how the limited effects of the cuts, no one is certain as to when they will end—and given history and future plans, that end may not come anytime soon.

FIRST CAME THE CUTS

While each House has dealt with the increased financial limitations in a different way, no House has been immune to the budget cuts, which FAS Dean Michael D. Smith announced last May.

The cuts to the House budgets can be characterized by their minimal impact on student life and their adherance to the top priorities of the College—academics and the House system—according to Dean of Student Life Suzy M. Nelson.

“What we’ve tried to do is not to take what students would experience but try to be more efficient internally,” she said in an interview last month.

After receiving the news that their funds would be restricted, many Houses developed innovative ways to cut costs. Lowell House put its House directory online instead of printing copies out for residents, saving about $10,000, while Mather House Committee members participated in a day of Dorm Crew in order to raise money for Mather Lather.

But the cutbacks have also required the Houses to make some more substantial changes to the services they provide.

Adams House Master John G. “Sean” Palfrey ’67 said the House cut “some of the slightly fancier ingredients” in Masters’ Open Houses, but also had to eliminate the federal work-study jobs of students who worked in the library and superintendent’s office.

“The library has suffered tremendously,” he said. “I actually haven’t heard back from the work-study students on where they’re finding roles.”

Some Houses, such as Adams, have resorted to their rainy day funds, while others, like Mather, have had their House Masters subsidize events.

“They’ve been remarkably generous, above and beyond what’s even reasonable, which has been really helpful given our budget,” said Mather House Committee historian Anna S. Roth ’12.

THEN IT WAS ALL RESTORED?

While House affiliates have resigned themselves to the current budgetary restrictions for the time being, what no one has been able to answer is when House budgets will resume the form they had before 2009.

“We hope that it doesn’t last too long, but really that’s out of our hands,” said Lowell House resident tutor Van C. Tran. “That’s really something that the dean has to think about and hopefully allocate money within the constraints of the larger University community.”

Though they may be unpleasant, Nelson said that the cuts have forced Houses to consider how they spend their money.

“Let’s all hope that everything’s going to turn around,” Nelson said. “The whole country hopes for this. All of us will have more breathing room with our budgets.”

Even if the nation’s economy and, in turn, the endowment rebound, Palfrey said he does not anticipate an immediate resurgence in funds.

Moreover, while he acknowledged that administrators understand the importance of the House system, he cited a period between 2005 and 2008 which he described as a time when they bolstered their own offices but not the Houses.

“They had a little more money, so the administration improved or increased the administrative budgets,” he said. “Truth be told, when the budget cuts occurred, they had to cut back their administrative budget, but they also cut back the House budget, which had not increased by the same degree–if at all—during the expansion.”

Where budgetary priorities will lie after the financial crisis is alleviated is also not clear. Assuming an economic recovery in 2011, any possible subsequent increase in the House budgets would coincide with the House renewal project, whose start date of 2012 was maintained as recently as February by Nelson.

But Palfrey is hopeful that the limits on his House’s budget will be loosened.

“We do meet with the President. We meet with the dean of FAS. We meet with the dean of the College, and they do seem to care. So our hope is they’ll restore it,” Palfrey said.

—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.