While the nation's capital faces the red pen of bureaucracy slashing, Harvard, too, confronts questions about the steady growth of its own administration.

Several professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have charged in interviews and at recent Faculty meetings that the growth of the central administration has ballooned out of control.

They say that FAS should be consulted on budgetary decisions, since the central administration is insufficiently accountable and therefore spends recklessly.

Administrators counter that the growth of the center has simply paralleled the growth of the faculties.

They add that this expansion is not wasteful, but a reflection of a healthier University, pointing to a number of centrally-administered programs that have blossomed in recent years.

Assessing the Growth Rates

In interviews and at Faculty meetings over the last year, several professors--most notably Coolidge Professor of History and Economics David S. Landes--have repeatedly raised concerns about the ever-expanding central administration bureaucracy.

The professors point to a 1992 draft of a paper authored by Lamont University Professor Emeritus John T. Dunlop, a former dean of the Faculty.

According to the minutes of last May's Faculty meeting, the report shows that the number of exempt staff University-wide increased by roughly 3 percent per year from 1973 until 1988. (Exempt staff receive neither a salary nor hourly wages, according to Human Resources spokesperson Merry Touborg.)

While this growth occurred, however, the number of non-exempt employees, the number of students and the dollar-value of research grants remained virtually unchanged, Dunlop reported.

Landes says this growth is both unaccounted for and unacceptable. He says the central administration has an obligation to provide a detailed annual report, as well as to subject its budget to observation and control.

"The budget should be finalized before the year of expenditure," Landes says. "It should reflect planning and constraint, and the Faculty should be consulted."

An analysis comparable to Dunlop's study was released in November by the Office of Human Resources. The report, prepared by Associate Vice President for Human Resources Candace R. Corvey and FAS Associate Dean for Human Resources Polly Price, focuses on trends between the fall of 1988 and the fall of 1994.

The Corvey-Price report illustrates a continuation of Dunlop's earlier pattern. According to the report, the University's exempt staff grew annually by 2.9 percent between 1988 and 1994.

But President Neil L. Rudenstine says a cursory examination of the numbers is deceiving.

He attributes much of the center's recent growth to the significant increase in research grants awarded to Harvard faculty, large-scale improvements such as the library reconversion project, the increased demand for Harvard Dining Services and the funding of University programs from outside sources.