While it is unlikely the school would stop offering dining facilities—as they help provide a sense of community within the school—Newman says it is a decision the school might have to consider if expenses became too high.

The Law School already subsidizes its dining facilities, and Upson says that subsidy “is about to get quite a bit larger” because of increased wages.

Since the schools’ dining facilities have to compete with the restaurants in Harvard Square for diners, Upson says raising prices to offset the coming salary hikes would be “self-defeating.”

Like the Law School, the Business School will increase food subsidies before allowing food prices to exceed market rates, since dropping dining services altogether is “not an option” because of the school’s location in Allston, Rapier says.

The impact of the new wage requirements on the Business School’s dining operation is likely minimal as its contractor, Restaurant Associates, employs unionized workers with pay scales similar to Harvard’s in-house workers, unlike the Law and Kennedy Schools’ contractor.

An Unfair Burden?

Central administration officials are negotiating the wage increases, which all schools will then be required to adopt. But Mass. Hall will not provide schools any extra funding, in accordance with long-standing University philosophy that schools support themselves independently.

Medical School Associate Dean for Finance Cynthia L. Walker says she had not expected University help but adds that “whether they should [help] is a different question.”

University Vice President for Finance Elizabeth C. “Beppie” Huidekoper says costly policy requirements imposed by the central administration on the schools are not out of the ordinary.

“There are many guidelines that come out of the center,” she says. “This is not way out of the norm. All compensations are overseen by the center.”

But Upson says that in the past, the University has typically issued wage or other guidelines to ensure schools were complying with legal requirements—not to enforce a decision based on judgments of principle.

“It’s almost always based on rules or regulations rather than this discretionary sort of thing,” he says.

He adds that the scale and cost of the wage report’s requirements were not typical central administration mandates.

But despite the added burdens on budgets, many of the finance officers say they and their schools supported the wage increases called for by Summers and the committee.

Newman points out that the budget process always involves balancing priorities, even in the best of financial times.

“We were fully aware that we were making recommendations that would have cost impacts, but we felt so strongly about the recommendations that we still proposed them unanimously,” she says.

—Jenifer L. Steinhardt contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu