Harvard garnered another Latin epigram this Saturday: Harvars longa, fortuna breva, pecunia fugienta.
"Fortune is fickle, the markets will falter, but Harvard has to be here forever," President Neil L. Rudenstine told more than 600 alumni leaders--including the University's biggest donors--this weekend in the second major address of Harvard's $2.1 billion capital campaign.
Though it may not have the simple ring of veritas, campaign leaders got the President's point: Harvard may be doing well--its budget is nearly balanced, the endowment just passed $11 billion and the campaign is 80 percent complete, with two years to go.
But the $500 million needed to reach the campaign goal is still undoubtedly needed, he added.
"So if we are asked whether we can coast through the rest of the campaign with $500 million still to raise or whether we can rest--soporifically tranquilized--on our endowment laurels, then our reply--I feel certain--must be that we dare not," he told a crowded Sanders Theatre.
Rudenstine's speech capped the University Campaign Leadership Forum--a weekend of panels and meetings, dinners and speeches for the campaign's alumni leadership.
But his speech was not just another campaign plea. Rudenstine also used the opportunity to spell out some revolutionary aspects of the University's broader agenda as the 21st century approaches.
Many of his points were drawn from some of Rudenstine's favorite themes: internationalism, information technology and diversity. But there was new substance to his suggestions.
In addition to funding more world travel and research for professors and students and admitting students from around the world, Rudenstine proposed for the first time that Harvard create "a limited number of outposts overseas."
"We need to be able to sustain [professors'] projects over time, to build long-term relationships with people and nations abroad and to place ourselves more directly in touch with the societies that we study," he said. "In other words, Rudenstine said in an interview afterwards that this was among the most important of the new ideas contained in the speech. Perhaps responding to last year's controversy over the small number of tenured women professors, Rudenstine touched on Harvard's "commitment to the education and advancement of women" and pointed to a number of initiatives in this area. Three years ago, Rudenstine gave the campaign kick-off speech to many of the same audience members in the exact same room. His earlier speech, though, was more personal in tone and emphasized the donors' important role in Harvard's history, citing, among other anecdotes, how Harvard got its first observatory. Saturday's audience--which included top brass from Mass. Hall, members of the Corporation and Board of Overseers as well as prominent alumni and donors--responded favorably to the speech and seemed overcome by the breadth of Rudenstine's 16-page lecture, which he has composed off-and-on over the past 18 months. "I thought it was very much to the heart of the matter, very encyclopedic and in that sense very uplifting," said Perry D. Caminis '60. Officials said they hoped the weekend would inspire alumni leaders for the waning months of the campaign and, according to listeners, it did. "I though it was a brilliant talk filled with substance, energy and vision," said Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67. "I think it was terrific, inspirational to everyone here." Among the major donors in attendance were Katherine B. Loker, Sidney R. Knafel '52, Paul A. Buttenwiser '60 and Elizabeth and Carl H. Pforzheimer III '58. Rudenstine drew upon some recent Harvard history to offer a sobering reminder that no matter how large the endowment may grow, "fortune is fickle" and alumni generosity is indispensable. Rudenstine reminded listeners that in 1992 the University had a $42 million deficit and that in 1991 it wrote off $200 million in endowment losses. The average endowment return from 1998 through 1991 was a meager 6.6 percent, he added. Rudenstine said that neither the gloom of yesterday nor the glitter of today will last, and that Harvard, in order to "be here forever," must plan soberly for the future and then stick to this path. "That means setting a course which can be maintained with real consistency through any number of vicissitudes: 'Calm rising'--as our hymn has it--'through change and through storm,'" Rudenstine said. The University Campaign Leadership Forum ran Friday and Saturday. Attendants arrived on Friday evening and attended various gift and leadership dinners. Prior to Rudenstine's speech on Saturday, Harvard officials conducted panels on various aspects of running Harvard. Jack R. Meyer, president of Harvard Management Company, presented "Managing Harvard's Endowment" and Anne H. Taylor, vice president and general counsel, spoke on "Legal Problems Facing Harvard." After the speech, alumni were bused to the Briggs Athletic Center for lunch and then watched Harvard beat Princeton, 14-12, on the football field.
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