With just eight months left in the six year long Capital Campaign set to raise $2.1 billion for Harvard, the University's flagship school is the only one still short of its goals.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the academic heart of Harvard and whose fundraising needs made up almost half of the campaign's original goal, still remains $48 million short.

Laura W. Smith, associate dean of development communications, calls the campaign "the hallmark of the president's tenure."

Every other school--business, dental, design, divinity, the Kennedy School of Government, law, medical, education and public health--has reached its original goal. With their new funds and what FAS has accumulated so far, Harvard has pulled in $1.98 billion since the start of the campaign in May of 1994.

And Harvard's administration is confident that FAS' goals will be met, and in time.

"Indeed, I trust we'll go over the top!" Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles wrote in an e-mail message.

To reach those goals, the University is considering changes in its fundraising strategies, aiming at pulling in more money for the library system--still $30 million short of its goal--and endowed professorships, of which 16 of a planned 40 have not yet been funded.

The Stragglers

University officials hope that mega benefactor Katherine B. Loker started a trend with her $14 million gift to the library system last year.

According to Nancy M. Cline, Larsen librarian of Harvard College, Harvard's library system will use the funds it collects in the campaign to continue to maintain its historical collection while adding very modern features.

Renovations to Widener already under way will eventually add a climate control system to preserve the aging texts and a digitization program to put more resources on line.

Director of the University Library Sidney Verba '53 says that library donations have always been notoriously hard to come by.

"Everybody loves the library, but it is everybody's second most favorite part of the University," says Verba, who is also Pforzheimer University professor.

Thomas M. Reardon, Harvard's vice president for alumni affairs and development, says that donors may want a more personal feel to their gift than a library donation can bring.

"Donors are most interested in things that have a human dimension to them," Reardon says.