Harvard Finances Remain Stable

Harvard, with an endowment approaching $4.5 billion, had a strong showing financially last year, maintaining its position as the nation's largest academic fundraiser.

But while the University's annual financial report, released yesterday, confirmed Harvard's fiscal stability, administrators continue to say that the University needs to raise an additional $2 billion to meet its long-range goals.

The financial report was presented to the Board of Overseers this Sunday, as the alumni-elected governing body met with some of Harvard's largest donors to discuss the plans for the multi-billion dollar fundraising effort.

Covering the University's finances through June 30, 1989, the report noted a $320 million jump in Harvard's endowment this past year, from about $4.2 billion to a record high of almost $4.5 billion.

Plans for the massive new fundraising campaign have already put the spotlight on increasing coordination between Harvard's nine faculties, but the financial report also stressed that theme.

"This is an issue which Harvard is spending a lot of time on--partly because of [the campaign]," Vice President for Finance Robert H. Scott said yesterday.

To help ensure that budgets for individual faculties reflect University-wide goals, the financial report said six deans have recently submitted comprehensive five-year plans to the Corporation, the University's chief governing board.

Over the next two years, the remaining deans will prepare similar plans, helping administrators allocate resources for Harvard as a whole, the finance report said.

But the bulk of the 88-page report concentrated on the details of Harvard's investments and fundraising efforts over the past year.

Total annual giving, at $185 million, went back on track in 1989, increasing more than $30 million from the year before. The Faculty of Arts and Science received the largest share of gifts, totaling more than $65 million.

The report also indicated some changes in the University's traditional distribution of fundraising income. The Law School, the Business School and the Medical School have generally topped the annual giving statistics, but yesterday's report showed a fifth faculty slowly moving up the annual giving ladder.

In 1989, the Kennedy School of Government received more than $14 million in total gifts, about $5 million more than the Law School's total and only about $1 million less than the Business School.

The Medical School, which is in the middle of a capital campaign, received about$33 million in gifts last year, the report said.

Some administrators attribute the KennedySchool's surge in support to President Derek C.Bok's ability to convince donors that the school'sprograms are a high priority.

In his annual report last year, Bok cited theschool for its achievements, delineating "what wehave achieved and what must still be done to builda first-rate professional school for publicservice.