But Henry and Wirth, as well as other concerned alums, say that Harvard’s projected savings don’t realize the full potential of centralized procurement, which can only be determined by soliciting bids on the entire $1 billion worth of University contracts.
Robert C. Waggoner ’58, a former chair of the Visiting Committee on the College and a co-chair of his class’ fundraising drive, says he would be “surprised” if a full effort resulted in less than $100 million in savings.
“I don’t think we really know,” Waggoner says.
But Waggoner dismissed more conservative estimates. “A typical reaction by the manager of an independent fiefdom always is there aren’t these savings to be obtained,” Waggoner says.
He echoes the sentiments of other alums, when he explains one root of his concern. “No one wants to give money to an organization that’s being spendthrift,” says Waggoner, who himself has endowed a economics professorship.
Centripetal Motion
Savings aside, the new purchasing plans come as part of an effort by Summers to rein in the highly autonomous schools and get them to work together where it’s to their benefit.
Where efforts in the academic realm have at times been met with resistance, Summers has succeeded in convincing the schools to budge on administrative matters—like the purchasing plans—University officials and some of the alums agree.
“Larry’s leadership has been essential,” Moriarty said of the IBM effort. “Having that kind of support behind this, [saying] ‘Let’s really talk through why it makes sense to think about a collective action here,’ is very important.”
According to Hyman, the University is now looking to go beyond these first steps and perhaps consolidate further.
Moriarty recently convened a meeting of schools’ administrative deans to consider how smaller schools might combine administrative procedures to save money, Hyman says.
“They’re making lists of places where they would like to share expertise or rely on one school as a service center so they’re not duplicating projects,” Hyman says.
C. Boyden Gray ’64, the White House counsel to former President George H.W. Bush, has pressured Harvard on this issue as well. He says Summers’ efforts at administrative centralization seem logical despite over three centuries’ worth of tradition.
“The historical tradition of each tub on its own bottom has served Harvard very well in terms of academic excellence, and I certainly don’t think they ought to give it up in terms of how schools go about their primary task of picking faculty and admissions,” Gray says. “But for bricks and mortar, for purchasing, I don’t think they sacrifice any of the values of that historic policy.”
—Jenifer L. Steinhardt contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.