Buehrens praised medical school faculty for helping to alleviate projected deficits from the revenue side.

“Our number one issue in terms of increasing revenue is grant overhead,” he said. “The faculty has helped quite a bit in the success they’re having in getting federal funding.”

According to Buehrens, faculty grant revenue has risen sharply over the past year.

He said that this increase was “extraordinary” because the National Institutes of Health budget is actually growing much more slowly on a national level.

“The faculty has really done a great job in aggressively seeking funding,” he said.

“We’ve made progress, but we’re not quite out of the woods,” Buehrens added.

October predictions showed deficits of more than $20 million a year in 2007 and 2008, although these predictions are now at $11 and $16 million, according to Walker’s financial update.

In an administrative newsletter last month, Buehrens compared balancing the school’s budget to “turning the Titanic three degrees to port.” But he added that he was “pretty confident we will be successful.”

—Staff writer Wendy D. Widman can be reached at widman@fas.harvard.edu.