Yesterday, Summers and other administrators called the changes a first step in fulfilling promises Summers made at his inauguration to put graduate student financial aid on par with aid at the College and improve funding for schools that prepare students for careers in public service.
Over the course of the last year, Summers has polled the various schools as to their aid needs and how they would use new funds. Academic deans from several schools said recently they were still awaiting word from the administration about when funding would arrive.
Summers said yesterday that, in addition to the class credit change, other initiatives on graduate student financial aid were still being developed, but he declined to elaborate. According to administration officials, a capital campaign targeting this priority is among several fundraising options being considered.
The changes to class credit also fit with another of Summers’ oft-mentioned pledges—to break down traditional divides between the University’s fiercely autonomous schools.
The changes represent a success for Summers in light of both this goal and earlier unsuccessful attempts to liberalize class credit policy.
According to University officials, when then-Provost Harvey V. Fineberg ’67 broached the topic of expanding class credit in the 1990s, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the other wealthier schools resisted.
These schools argued that widening class credit would dull an important fundraising tool and cost them millions of dollars.
While the current effort required several months of negotiations, Summers described the debate as thoughtful and uncontentious.
Nowhere evident yesterday were the concerns that torpedoed the earlier attempt to change the policy.
Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby said he was satisfied with the changes.
“I’ve always felt we in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are part of a broader University,” Kirby said.
He added that he was not worried that the changes would undercut FAS’ abilities to fundraise. “We have a president who is very focused on the College [and] an alumni body second to none in devotion,” Kirby said. “[The change] simply expands the number of options open to those who wish to give gifts.”
Summers said the deans were unanimous in their support both of the policy and its underlying intents.
“I think the feeling that all the deans had and that I certainly had is that it’s important to continue to set priorities but that priorities should be set on a University-wide basis,” Summers said. “Many supporters of the University are eager to support things that are going on in parts of the University other than the part they graduated from.”
Summers said that the change is not an attack on the autonomy of the schools.
“I don’t think of it in that way,” he said. “I think about it being about allowing the University to function in a cooperative way.”
—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.