And even the Divinity School—one of Harvard’s smaller schools—will expand its faculty from 35 to 50 members, according to Associate Dean for Academic Affairs David C. Lamberth.

To fund these ambitious programs in lean times, schools either must make cuts or face deficits. And while every school is attempting to remain in the black, it’s not yet clear what cuts many of them will make to balance the budget.

The Cutbacks

So far, schools not yet facing deficits have committed to some administrative cuts and delayed some projects, but they have done little else.

Berman said she expects schools to trim administrative functions before making academic cuts.

“Administrative areas are usually the first areas where people look for savings, because they are viewed as having the least long-term impact on what we are here to do—teaching and research,” she said. “We would closely question a school that proposed cutting faculty or academic areas rather than administration.”

FAS has implemented a “soft freeze” on administrative hiring and will give out lower raises than last year.

In addition, Kirby has urged department chairs to make better use of restricted funds—those with specific instructions for their use—to free up unrestricted funds and help balance the budget.

But with FAS expenses projected to grow at 4 or 5 percent—a rate well above its projected revenue growth—a budget crunch looms on the horizon.

“We must and we will be careful,” Kirby wrote in his letter. “Our long-term aspirations will require difficult choices in the near term.”

Some of these choices will have repercussions for the College.

“We have ambitious plans for developing the faculty and the physical plant,” said Associate Dean of the College Georgene Herschbach. “These issues will cost a lot of money, and if you go down three, four, five years, you can see how we get in a bind.”

A number of College projects will be delayed or put on hold, she said. Student life and activities funding is “in a holding pattern,” she said, and the maintenance budget—half of the College’s overall expenditures—will be cut 5 percent.

“We had more ambitious thoughts about what we’d like to do,” she said. “But we’re in a period of belt-tightening, so that’s what we’ll do.”

Herschbach said the last-minute planning for the $250,000 implementation of the Leaning committee recommendations on sexual assault will complicate next year’s College budget.