At the same time last spring, in anticipation of increased costs, the University decided to require additional payments from the individual schools in the form of a yearly assessment totalling one-half-of-one-percent of each school’s endowment.

That five-year assessment will become part of the central administration’s general funds and will not contribute directly to the infrastructure fund, Huidekoper says.

“There is an existing assessment that’s always been there, and it still doesn’t cover the full costs [of central administration activities],” she says. “The full cost has been supported by managing the capital of the University.”

While acquisition and preparation funds are coming solely from central funds, eventual building costs will be covered by the University and the schools together, Huidekoper says.

Although the University has a long-standing policy of requiring its 11 schools, or “tubs,” to finance themselves independently, the Allston project may require a move away from that principle.

The as-yet-undetermined schools that eventually move to Allston will not be able to fund the creation of entirely new campuses on their own. And since one school’s move would increase the space available for expansion for another school in Cambridge, the costs will require participation from the entire University.

“The fact that we are so tub-centric is not going to be effective,” Huidekoper says.

A Brave New Campus

As the University does not expect the infrastructure fund to last long enough to offset any building costs, schools will have to cover building construction through a combination of fund-raising and borrowing.

The University will ensure that schools that take out debt can individually fund its repayment.

Because the schools remaining in Cambridge will likely expand into newly-vacated Harvard-owned space, Huidekoper says an additional funding source for construction will be the sale of old buildings to those schools that are left behind.

In most cases, however, those proceeds would not entirely offset the more expensive construction of a new building.

The details of compensation between Harvard schools have not yet been worked out, according to Spiegelman.

Although alumni donations will play a major role in funding the eventual costs, the University Development Office, which handles Harvard fundraising, has not begun approaching potential Allston donors, spokesperson Andy Tiedemann says. For now, with hard numbers and figures so far off, the University has more pressing needs.

“We still have to keep the things going for the next ten years,” Huidekoper says. “There’s plenty of things we need from alumni for today rather than ten years from now.”