Harvard arts and sciences faculty are told of deficits

Harvard University's largest school, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is facing growing annual deficits in coming years, from $40 million this academic year to $80 million in 2009-2010, a group of professors was told yesterday.

Sluggish fund-raising, the construction of buildings, and the costs associated with improving undergraduate education at Harvard are driving the deficits, according to two people at yesterday's meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because participants agreed not to talk to the media.

The Arts and Sciences dean, William C. Kirby, said, however, that the school has sufficient reserves to cover the deficits and that the increased spending is part of a strategic plan to improve the school.

''I can look ahead with enormous confidence and not with concern," he said in an interview. ''It's our job, with as formidable an endowment as we have, to show we are using it."

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which includes the undergraduate college and the major doctoral programs, has an annual budget of more than $1 billion a year and an endowment of $12 billion, Kirby said.

Several professors who serve on a resources committee made the presentation yesterday to the Arts and Sciences faculty council, which advises the dean.

Although the presentation did not blame anyone for the budget problems, several of the factors discussed related to the priorities of Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers, who has emphasized the importance of building a vast campus in Allston, as well as expanding in the sciences.

Professors asked many questions about why the university hasn't been able to raise more money for the priorities, but administrators did not provide specific answers, one of the sources said.

The biggest portion of the growing costs, about $70 million a year, is associated with new buildings, especially two major science buildings under construction in Cambridge, according to the sources. Other costs, about $60 million a year, arise from ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate education, including expanding the size of the faculty. The ratio of students to tenured and tenure-track faculty at Harvard College, the undergraduate school, is 11 to 1 and is less favorable than at some of Harvard's closest competitors, such as Princeton, Kirby has said.

The crunch is also the result of Harvard's failure to raise more money for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, according to one of the sources. The main problem is that the university's new capital campaign has not gotten underway, the source said.

Although an official start date was never announced, it is widely understood that the campaign has been significantly delayed because of the controversy this year sparked by Summers's remarks about the alleged differences in men's and women's ''intrinsic aptitude" for science. That led to a no-confidence vote on Summers by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and a member of Harvard's governing corporation later resigned, saying Summers should have stepped down.

Last spring, corporation members said that the campaign would not be launched for at least two years and that a period of ''convalescence" was in order.

Another factor behind the deficits that was discussed yesterday is that even though Harvard's schools are largely financially independent, they are now subject to a tax to help pay for Harvard's expansion in Allston, the sources said. The tax, called the strategic infrastructure fund, is an annual half-percent of each school's endowment.

Finally, Harvard has not been able to raise significant donations to pay for the two major science buildings under construction in Cambridge, the first source said.

The second source emphasized that the school's reserves and increased fund-raising could improve the financial picture.

Kirby said the expansion of the faculty, the new buildings, and other student-life initiatives will continue as planned.

The school has reserves of $400 million, but much of that is in small funds that can be used only for very specific purposes, Kirby said. He said he did not know how much money was in the school's central reserves, which can be used for any purpose. ''We are very fortunate at Harvard to have the resources we have," Kirby said. ''Other universities would like to have both the challenge and the opportunities we have."

A spokesman for Summers referred to a letter the president wrote last month to the community, in which he said, ''The University is committed to supporting the FAS in reaching its goal of 750 faculty members by the end of 2010, with further expansion anticipated beyond that date."

Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.