Charting a course to take the Faculty of arts and Sciences (FAS) into the next century, Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence released a report this week detailing FAS' massive fundraising needs.

In his annual budget letter mailed to faculty members this week, Spence spotlighted eight areas where he said a major infusion of new funds was needed to ensure Harvard's continued pre-eminence. Top priorities include internationalization of the curriculum and student body and a dramatic expansion in the number of professors.

"I believe that Harvard is the leader in American higher education today, as it has been for a century," Spence wrote, in uncharacteristically sweeping language. "If we are imaginative and aggressive, take carefully calculated risks, and are properly financed we will remain so."

"But our current financial condition is not healthy enough to sustain Harvard College as the symbol of academic excellence it has been in the past," Spence continued. "Our only feasible source of significant new income to meet this challenge is fundraising."

Spence's letter comes as Harvard finalizes plans for an unprecedented $2 billion University-wide capital campaign. FAS, historically the largest fundraiser of Harvard's nine faculties, is likely to receive the lion's share of the campaign's windfall.

Although Spence's letter did not include specific fundraising goals, sources have estimated FAS's target at $1 to $1.5 billion. FAS's last campaign, which corresponded with the College's 350th anniversary in 1986, netted more than $350 million.

In an interview this week, Spence called the priorities "half-established," saying they are still subject to faculty discussion and governing board approval.

A fundraising source said that a final decision on the capital drive would probably come from President Derek C. Bok and the Corporation this winter, and Spence said the effort would probably move into "relatively higher gear" during the next academic year.

But until then, Spence and other administrators are laying the groundwork for expansion, coming up with detailed plans for FAS' future and deciding how to sell them to Harvard's alumni. Last Sunday, Spence and several associate deans met with members of the Board of Overseers to explain those plans.

Spence's fundraising letter also highlighted the difficulty of fundraising for Harvard's needs at a time when "there is considerable skepticism about higher education in the country."

"Because Harvard is still the leader inAmerican higher education, it falls to us tocreate a viable vision of the research universityfor the next century and to turn that vision intoa reality," Spence wrote.

Undergraduate Education

Spence wrote that FAS should improve itsstudent advising system and increase opportunitiesfor interaction between students and faculty. Toaccomplish this end, FAS will have to expand, hesaid.

Spence proposed the gradual establishment of 40new non-science professorships; the FAS currentlyhas about 800 members, many of whom are in thesciences. Depending on how many are tenuredpositions, the price tag could fall anywherebetween $40 and $90 million, according to afundraising source.

Sciences and Engineering