JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL Looming Layoffs gets….” FAS dean Michael D. Smith’s letter on the same date reit- erated an earlier warning. Although the efficiencies outlined on Harvard has begun downsizing its workforce. On May 11, Marilyn the FAS website were “staffing neutral,” he wrote, “the financial Hausammann, vice president for human resources, announced that challenge before us makes it increasingly likely that staff reductions 534 of 1,628 staff members eligible for an early-retirement incen- will eventually be necessary.” tive—33 percent—had accepted the offer. (The Faculty of Arts The Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM), which led the liv- and Sciences alone offered early retirement to 521 staff members, ing-wage campaign for lower-paid University employees at the be- of whom 30 percent accepted—a small fraction of its nearly ginning of the decade, re-emerged around the slogan, “Greed is 3,700-person staff.) the new Crimson” (a play on Harvard’s environmental theme), and The retirements will lessen, but not eliminate, layoffs, given pres- organized rallies against layoffs (see www.hcs.harvard.edu/slam). sure to cut spending. As of October 2008, Harvard employed SLAM leaflets distributed before the May 19 faculty meeting sug- about 12,950 full-time-equivalent non-faculty staff members—co- gested alternatives (graduated pay reductions of 5 percent to 15 incidentally, nearly 500 more than were employed a year earlier, percent and reduced pension contributions for employees earning and almost as many as are retiring early. For the year ended June more than $100,000 per year,reduced paid vacation time) and de- 30, 2008, compensation accounted for 48 percent of University tailed cuts adopted by senior administrators at Brown, Stanford, expenses ($1.7 billion). Hausammann noted, “Although Harvard’s and other universities. schools and departments are now analyzing the impact of the Layoffs were widely expected to be announced beginning in pending retirements on their budgets…for many schools further late June, after the Commencement crowds dispersed. For up- reductions in force will likely be necessary to meet budget tar- dates, consult www.harvardmagazine.com. closed that its investments, down 27 per- “The steady growth in both faculty and students, and professorial colleagues. cent as of December 31, had depreciated to sta≠ that we have enjoyed over the last 10 For Smith, the immediate problem re- a 31 percent loss two months later (an esti- years will end, and the university will have mains: FAS’s large financial chasm could mate that did not include updated, quar- to contract in size.” not be closed in one year, so his working terly valuations of private-equity and real- The same is likely for much of Harvard. groups face months of e≠ort to find addi- estate investments). In the meantime, it At the May 19 meeting, Faust said the tional cuts. In the future, he said on April has more than quadrupled relative hold- community faces “very hard choices” and 14, “it is increasingly likely…that we will ings of cash from the beginning of the year. acknowledged, “We have to give some not have a need for as many faculty and The University of Virginia Investment things up.” She urged the faculty to “focus sta≠” as today. How the College and grad- Management Company’s March 31 report not on what we have lost but on what we uate school are reshaped looms as a partic- also indicated a sizable increase in cash, in still have”—superb libraries, laboratories, ularly daunting set of issues for Harvard. part to be ready to make mandated future investments in private asset pools. Both reports suggest what will attract notice when Harvard Management Com- renovation of the Houses [see “What pany reports fiscal year 2009 performance Renewing the Makes (and Remakes) a House,” July-Au- in late summer: how defensive the portfo- Houses gust 2008, page 66]. The Report on Harvard lio has become (insulating against current House Renewal includes undergraduate sur- losses, but depressing potential returns), In early april, dean of Harvard College vey results, the findings of focus groups, and what results large holdings of illiquid Evelynn M. Hammonds released the re- and the recommendations of the House and hard-to-value assets have produced. sults of a year-long review of the residen- Program Planning Committee (see In the meantime, Princeton president tial House system, commissioned as part www.orl.fas.harvard.edu); as Hammonds Shirley M. Tilghman on April 6 notified of the preparations for a major physical wrote in an accompanying letter to col- her community that the financial mar- leagues, it a∞rms “that the kets had “unhappily” not improved House system is essential, not from the beginning of the year, com- ancillary, to a Harvard educa- pelling a further round of budget cuts tion as it aims to engage stu- for fiscal years 2010 and 2011—follow- dents in the intellectual life of ing similar rounds of deeper cuts an- the College and the University nounced by Yale and Stanford. Tilgh- beyond the classroom.” man forecast uncomfortable pressure on endowment spending extending Dining halls (such as Eliot’s) are beyond 2011, even as Princeton pursues “the hub of House life,” says a report on the residences, and its capital campaign, and concluded, every House should have its own. ROSE LINCOLN/HARVARD NEWS OFFICE 56 July - August 2009 Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Yesterday’s News From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine 1929 Construction crews are busy 1964 Post-Commencement statistics pouring foundations for the first units of reveal that, excluding those seniors the new “houses” on Plympton and De- headed for engineering, research, and Wolfe streets, raising the steel frame of technical jobs, the Peace Corps (at the new athletic building, and converting 16 percent) accounts for the largest Boylston Hall from a mostly science to a segment of new graduates. mostly nonscience facility. 1969 Early in the morning of August 1944 Thomas J.Watson, president of 20, a man attempting to steal Widener's IBM, formally presents Harvard with the two-volume Gutenberg Bible falls ROSE LINCOLN /HARVARD NEWS OFFICE The report said libraries (like this one in “revolutionary” Automatic Sequence approximately 50 feet from a rope into Winthrop) are key to House life and should Controlled Calculator, 51 feet long and an interior courtyard of the library, be open 24 hours a day if possible. eight feet high, the brainchild in part of breaking his leg and cracking his skull. The recommendations run the gamut associate professor turned naval com- The Bible is recovered in excellent con- of House life, ranging from the educa- mander Howard H.Aiken, Ph.D. ’39. dition apart from damage to the bind- tional and programmatic to the architec- * * * ings, which were not original. tural. Pointing to the importance of the President James Bryant Conant offers Houses in promoting meaningful faculty- Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks estate in 1974 New studies offer various plans student interaction, for example, the re- Washington, D.C., for a conference of for improving Harvard Square: among port calls the Senior Common Room sys- delegates from Britain, Russia, and the the issues involved are the dearth of tem (which a∞liates a number of faculty United States to plan for the preserva- parking spaces and debates about and sta≠ members with each House) “an tion of peace in the postwar world. rerouting cars, proposed guidelines for outdated concept that in many cases is real-estate development, and Harvard’s not working well….” Proposed instead is a 1949 Fully air-conditioned Lamont own long-range development plans. new House Fellows program, to be tested Library, open to both sexes during sum- in a few Houses, in which participants mer school, becomes the would be appointed to short, renewable center of activity during terms with clearly defined expectations. the hottest Cambridge Another aim of the review process was summer yet recorded. to identify common spaces that could be shared among Houses, such as grilles, 1954 Hurricane Carol strikes event venues, and theaters. Dining halls, with 120-mile-per-hour winds on deemed “the hub of House life,” were ex- August 31, toppling three of cluded because they serve many purposes, the oldest elms in the Yard, even when not in use for dining. de-roofing the Newell There were also many rea∞rmations of Boathouse shed, and what the Houses do right and should up- dropping a finial hold, including their commitment to indi- through the vidual House libraries, to intergenera- roof of Memo- tional interactions, and to a residential rial Hall. population size of 350 to 500 students. Al- though the project ultimately aims to eliminate “walkthrough” bedrooms and overflow housing as part of badly needed renovations of the physical structures and their systems, construc- tion planning has not begun. That ex- pensive work—though largely depen- dent on fundraising in the current fiscal situation—is projected to begin in 2012, and to take 12 years to complete. Illustration by Mark Steele Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard.