Last week, Hall acknowledged these factors as causes for the Press's financial problems, but he also implied that operations could have been tightened up considerably. There is evidence of dissatisfaction among Administration officials over budgeting procedures under Carroll. In the fiscal year 1970-1971, for example, the projected deficit for the year was budgeted at $150,000. When the fiscal year was up, the account books of the Press revealed that the actual deficit was not $150,000 but over $450,000, a variance of over $300,000. In the same year, the total income was estimated at $2.76 million when the actual income was only $2.1 million, and budgeted expense was predicted at a $2.9 million figure, when the actual expense ran around $3.2 million. For the current fiscal year, 1971-1972, the deficit is now projected to be over $375,000 on a budget that was designed to break even.

HALL'S MANAGEMENT PLAN for the administration of the Press brings with it a program to balance the budget over a five-year period and also introduces a number of marketing innovations that have not been used in the past at the Press. The management plan seeks to reduce the deficit from this year's $375,000 to $150,000 in the next fiscal year. From there it hopes to gradually reduce it further, until, in the fiscal year 1976-1977, the Press will break even.

Beyond this, under the management plan the Press has succeeded in shifting warehousing and sales over to Technical Impex, which will save the Press upwards of $200,000 annually. The switch to TIC enables the Press to cut back on staff from this year's total of 147 to a more efficient--and less costly--77. The reduction in personnel could save the Press another $30,000.

In the marketing area the management plan provides for the institution of a tracking system of individual books, to determine their sales and market performance. Furthermore, the plan calls for the institution of a system of market testing in order to decrease the question factor in decisions determining the size of first editions.

Although Hall's management plan steers clear, for the most part, of dictating editorial policy, it does suggest two things that could enhance sales and income for the Press. First, the plan suggests that the Press publish more reference works that would give a steady market yield over the years. It also suggests that the Press acquire or develop books that could be utilized for classroom use. This does not imply that the Press will go in for commercial textbook publication--it only states that the Press will be amenable to publishing the type of work that could be utilized in a classroom situation as well as outside it.

Another change in the operations of the Press will come in the number of books published annually. Last year the Press published over 160 books. Under the new plan it will cut back to approximately 120. This contraction in the number of books published will enable the Press to concentrate on marketing the books it does publish with more efficiency.

Hall stresses that his management plan is still highly flexible, and he is enthusiastic about the possibilities that it will open up to the Press. According to Hall, in the four months that the plan has been in effect, the Press has already begun to strengthen its economic position.

Last week Hall said that "right now we believe the Press is stronger than it has been at any time in the past few years," and that he hoped with "tremendous enthusiasm" that "the things we have started will grow to make the Press great."

HALL'S ENTHUSIASM is not just paternal praise for his new program. Others have concurred with his evaluation.

Brian Murphy, operations manager of the Press, said last week that Hall's analysis, financially speaking, was correct. "We are now on a firmer economic base than we were before," he said.

Maude E. Wilcox, editor for the Humanities of the Harvard Press since 1957, agreed. "There was a feeling that we have overextended ourselves in terms of financial commitment," she said last week.

Under the new management plan the Press seems to be recovering. The marketing innovations are helping direct and improve the sales of the books that the Press publishes, and the new warehousing and shipping systems are giving more efficient--and less costly--fulfillment of orders. It would seem that, financially at least, the Press is on the way back.

But what is the editorial situation? At the time of Carroll's dismissal, there was considerable sentiment in the Harvard community that the move signalled the takeover of the Press by "money men." Have the economic changes in fact affected the editorial end of the Press's operations and will they in the future?

Four months after the fact, it would seem that fears of a sacrifice of scholarly pursuits for fiscal stability, which were expressed at the time of Carroll's dismissal are unfounded. Both Bok and Hall have repeatedly stated that the changes in administration will have no effect on the editorial policy of the Press.

"We have had to go through a temporary period of financial and administrative controls to alleviate the financial problems of the Press," Bok said last week. "However, it is not our desire to place longterm administrative controls on the Press or to dictate editorial policy."