The Graduate School of Design (GSD) is beginning discussions which will probably lead to a major expansion of the school's programs to broaden its academic scope and help alleviate its recent financial problems, officials said this week.

Specialized advanced degree and post-professional programs are needed to expand the curriculum and bring in new sources of funding for the school, which has lost money the last three years, administrators said.

"We're doing what we do now very well, but we're losing money," said Kate Rooney, GSD assistant dean for administration.

But some students say the school has a lack of direction in its existing programs and should concentrate on reorganizing them before expanding.

"There are a lot of problems with the school as it currently exists. There are a lot of programs that aren't well defined or well run," said second year landscape architect Patrice Todisco.

Administrators and faculty blame most of the schools current financial problems on the loss of the City and Regional Planning Program which was transferred to the Kennedy School of Government in 1980, taking with it a large chunk of students and revenue. The GSD has run at a deficit every year since.

GSD Dean Gerald M. McCue said the current discussions have their roots in that loss but that the school has moved slowly to reassess its objectives. "I think the time has come for a logical policy for the growth of the school," he said.

McCue will discuss the school's direction with the faculty tomorrow and in a series of meetings throughout the spring.

"We need to come to a consensus about what our primary objective ought to he," said McCue.

The Design school is generally considered one of the top schools in the country--a recent poll of architects and educators rated it first--but some say that it has slipped in recent years.

"There's no question that Harvard used to be the premiere school in architecture and landscape architecture in the world, but that terminated 15 years ago," said Ian L. McHarg, chairman of the landscape architecture and regional planning-department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.

He said the school needed to expand its advanced education in response to changing conditions in professional architecture and design, but a major focus of this spring's discussions would be whether they can attract sufficient students and funding to make it feasible.

By soliciting money from professional firms and private foundations for new programs, the schools will be able to tackle both problems at once, said Rooney.

Professor of Landscape Architecture Carl J. Steinitz said discussions within the faculty' have recognized the need to "broaden the school's mandate."

"It's a sharper recognition of the changing profession and not just the student audiences, and I think it's positive," he added.

A recent example of the kind of program being discussed was a $300,000 grant for real estate economics from the Gerald Hines Corporation, a real-estate development firm, said GSD assistant dean for development Stephen I. Solomon.

The school is presently seeking funding for a program in construction technology, for an exchange program with a Spanish architectural school, and for an endowed chair in honor of former GSD dean architect Joseph Luis Cert.

One of GSD's often sited problems is its few full-time faculty, 25 percent of the school's voting faculty members are adjuncts who hold other jobs.

Administrators say that the faculty shortage has hampered expansion and some of the proposed programs may have to be run jointly with other schools to draw on their resources.

Last fall President Bok proposed creating three joint professorships between GSD and the K-School in housing, transportation and urban development to help bridge the gap opened by the loss of the regional planning program.

But the shortage remains serious enough that getting more full-time faculty is still a major priority, Bok said this week.

Bok also said he will help fundraise for three new professorships and programs, even though the University's schools are usually responsible for their own finances. "'Every tub on its own bottom' is a good policy, but it has to be applied with discretion. There has to be a thumb on the scales and it has to be done sensibly," he said.

Officials say other causes for the schools financial problems include a lack of wealthy alumni to tab, a lows student to instructor ratio, a small endowment and a heavy reliance on tuition for revenue. Only the Law School gets more of its budget from tuition then GSD's 57 percent.

Tuition for next year was just raised from $8600 to $9500, said Rooney but almost all of that will be spent on operating expenses.

The school currently has a goal of raising $18.5 million by the end of the decade, Solornon said. He added that a crucial part of that needs to be corporate funding for programs like the ones being discussed this spring.

Faculties are often slow to change but many at the GSD think that change is necessary. "The faculty's current deliberations are the major topic occupying the faculty right now and probably will be for some time," one GSD professor said