Quest for Funding
But Graham's successor will need to continue the struggle. As the leader of the graduate school with the smallest endowment in the University, one of the new dean's main tasks will be the continued quest for greater funding.
"There will continue to be a financial challenge," says Monnell. "We have always run on a tight budget. We're under-endowed. We have the lowest endowment per student on any faculty at Harvard."
Monnell says that financial aid for students is a much-needed resource that the Ed School is lacking.
"We're still heavily tuition-dependent," he says.
The new dean will need to convince University administrators of the importance of educational issues, and prompt them to reevaluate the school's funding relative to that of other graduate schools, says Snow, who calls the Ed School's financial state "perilous."
This recognition, and the subsequent shift in administrative attitude toward the Ed School, may be easier to achieve as education becomes a higher priority for major universities across the country.
"Higher education is more and more concerned, both for its own sake and for the sake of the country," Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus David Riesman '31 said last week.
For this reason, Graham's successor may meet with greater success in procuring monetary support from the University's new President.
Snow says that though Bok has been receptive to the Ed School's requests, there is still much more to be gained.
"He's been very generous in the last ten years compared to the University's level of generosity before that," Snow says. "Despite that generosity, he has not equalized the situation of the school of education and other richer faculties."
Both Snow and Morell say that massive fundraising may be in order if Bok's successor is not receptive to the Ed School's further requests.
Graham's successor, who will probably be chosen by the next president of Harvard, will have the benefit of working with a solid foundation of programs and a respected faculty.
Graham has "built some things here that will last a while," Morrell says.