THE Committee on Governance obviously believed that students would rate philanthropic investments as the most desirable form of community aid. But, in fact, many students argue that a policy of outright gift would be both more flexible and beneficial than social investment in "deserving enterprises," which at best means only one form or another of black capitalism. Otherwise, it must assume that small business is the favorite charity of undergraduates. These philanthropic investment categories can be used by the Corporation to fudge how much money it really does spend on charity.
Almost every socially beneficial capital venture could be financed through private capital outlays or amortized out of the existing budget. By placing all such decisions in the operating budget, one might better evaluate the tradeoffs between existing charities like Phillips Brooks House and new projects like day-care centers. At the same time, it seems evident that the State Street money managers of Harvard University are not psychically prepared to uncover small-business investment opportunities that do exist in Roxbury-or for that matter, in Cambridge or Manhattan.
Out of pure self-interest, students might well believe the most pressing of Harvard charities to be the much threatened scholarship program. The financial squeeze at Harvard has almost multiplied the tuition and menaced the socio-economic mix, since hard times have begun to affect more college ambitions. The Admissions Office will fight to maintain a stable number of scholarships, but backsliding seems likely. The bulk of scholarship money increasingly comes out of the FAS budget, which has started to run frightening deficits of its own. Some of the Faculty are campaigning to eliminate all scholarships in favor of loans. Dean Peterson would reportedly keep an undergraduate's debt under $4000, a somewhat more manageable sum than the $16,000 proposed by others. But even this aspiring loan program would take more funds. The open-admissions policy which allows Harvard to encourage applicants without regard to financial background will soon expire unless students (and, yes, even alumni) organize to claim their rights in the budgetary process. Assuming no increase in fixed student costs, the Admissions budget requires an additional $240,000 next year.
THOUGH it provides little new information, "Harvard and Money" gives a comprehensive introduction to the politics of University finance. But it sidesteps most controversy, and the overwhelming array of questions tends to subdue the reader to a humble silence rather than rouse him to debate. The memorandum does demonstrate that rated on fiscal and political clout, the administration is feeble and the faculties potent. In addition, the "raw power of the alumni" identifies them as the sleeping dragons outside the everyday bounds of fiscal politics. As the Committee observes, the literal implementation of "power to the people" would make them the final arbiters of Harvard's money. The immediate exigencies of the financial crunch, tragically, will now conservative them even more.
The Committee promises a sequel to this report, but this seems uncertain. Had the preliminary report come out a year ago, the Committee might have had enough feedback by now to help guide the new president. As it is, he will probably consult his own commissions and appoint some new successor to the overworked and flagging Committee on Governance.