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A undated file photo shows the one of the buildings in Harvard Universtiy. Harvard University is considering spending cuts because the economic slowdown may reduce federal grants and the school's substantial endowment, President Drew Faust said Monday.
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Harvard University is considering spending cuts because the economic slowdown may reduce federal grants and the school's substantial endowment, President Drew Faust said Monday.
Harvard's endowment posted an 8.6 percent return and grew to $36.9 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The school, however, lost 12.7 percent on its U.S. stock portfolio and 12.1 percent on its foreign equity portfolio during that time.
Still, Faust warned in an e-mail to faculty, staff and students that "we must recognize that Harvard is not invulnerable to the seismic financial shocks in the larger world. Our own economic landscape has been significantly altered."
"We need to be prepared to absorb unprecedented endowment losses and plan for a period of greater financial restraint," she said.
Harvard's is the nation's largest university endowment and provides about a third of the annual operating budget. Faust said the school is looking at ways to cut spending and will review compensation costs, which account for nearly half of the budget.
Harvard also is reviewing its ambitious expansion program, including plans announced early last year to expand across the Charles River from its Cambridge campus into Allson, she said.
"We will need to plan and act in ways that reflect that reality, to assure that we continue to advance our priorities for teaching, research and service," she said.
The school intends to implement initiatives to make education affordable to students from low- and middle-income families, and will ensure that those with income below $60,000 will pay nothing to send children to Harvard College. Those earning up to $180,000 can expect to pay no more than about 10 percent of their income, she said.
Harvard's efforts to address the economic downturn mirror what is happening elsewhere in the country, including other Ivy League schools. While wealthy schools can fare better in a downturn, they are also seen as vulnerable to prolonged market slumps because they tend to fund a greater portion of their budget from their endowment.
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(Agencies)
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哈佛大學(xué)校長(zhǎng)德魯?福斯特于本周一稱(chēng)，由于經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致聯(lián)邦教育撥款和捐贈(zèng)基金減少，學(xué)校目前正考慮縮減開(kāi)支。
在截至今年6月30日的財(cái)政年度中，哈佛大學(xué)的捐贈(zèng)基金收益率達(dá)8.6%，增至369億美元。但在這一階段，該校在國(guó)內(nèi)和境外的證券投資收益分別損失了12.7%和12.1%。
福斯特在發(fā)給全校教職工和學(xué)生的一封電子郵件中稱(chēng)：“我們必須認(rèn)識(shí)到，哈佛也無(wú)法幸免此次全球金融風(fēng)暴的影響。目前我們的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況已被顯著改變。”
她說(shuō)：“我們必須做好準(zhǔn)備，以面對(duì)捐贈(zèng)基金的大幅減少及今后一段時(shí)期的開(kāi)支緊縮。”
哈佛大學(xué)獲得的捐贈(zèng)基金居全美高校之首，其年度預(yù)算的三分之一都來(lái)源于此。福斯特稱(chēng)，目前學(xué)校正在想辦法縮減開(kāi)支，并考慮調(diào)整薪酬政策，哈佛大學(xué)每年的薪酬成本占其總預(yù)算的近一半。
此外，哈佛正重新考慮其校區(qū)擴(kuò)建計(jì)劃，比如去年年初提出的跨過(guò)查爾斯河，將學(xué)校從坎布里奇校區(qū)擴(kuò)張至奧爾森的計(jì)劃。
她說(shuō)：“我們必須因時(shí)制宜，保證優(yōu)先發(fā)展教學(xué)、科研及服務(wù)。”
學(xué)校將采取一些措施，以保證中低收入家庭的學(xué)生順利入學(xué)；此外，學(xué)校還打算免去家庭年收入低于6萬(wàn)美元的本科生的學(xué)雜費(fèi)。家庭年收入達(dá)18萬(wàn)美元的學(xué)生所支付的學(xué)費(fèi)也不會(huì)超過(guò)其家庭總收入的10%。
哈佛大學(xué)應(yīng)對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)的舉措并非特例，其它“常青藤”盟校也采取了類(lèi)似措施。雖然財(cái)政狀況較好的大學(xué)在金融危機(jī)中不至于太難，但由于它們比其他學(xué)校更依賴(lài)捐贈(zèng)基金，因此也會(huì)受到市場(chǎng)長(zhǎng)期蕭條的影響。
（實(shí)習(xí)生許雅寧 英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
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