They are SITTING ON $30 BILLION dollars and they are crying POVERTY?!!!!
Related: Harvard's Investment House
"Harvard pursues an unfamiliar discipline; Faculty, students are forced to get by with less" by Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | December 15, 2008
CAMBRIDGE - It's as if an heiress had lost her trust fund.
At Harvard University, the talk of billion-dollar losses in its massive endowment has blown in a new age of austerity across the campus. Faculty, administrators, and students - who had been riding what one professor termed "the gravy train" for as long as anyone could remember - are suddenly living a different reality in Cambridge.
The cuts are big and small. There are the hiring freezes that run to the core of the university's mission. But there are also the cookies and soft drinks eliminated from small faculty gatherings. A noon-hour seminar series that used to provide catered lunches from local ethnic restaurants will now serve pizza.
Faculty members, who are not slated for raises next year, will be expected to pitch in on clerical work (Question: How many Harvard philosophy professors does it take to work a
The article is laced with derogatory and editorial statements like (that) -- and then the pricks turn around and criticize blogs!!! What CHUTZPAH!!!!
"Harvard and other super-wealthy universities spent more than a decade believing the only limits they faced were in coming up with creative ways to spend their resources," said Theda Skocpol, professor of government and sociology. "They may not be well-prepared now to switch abruptly to a situation in which people have to pull together to be efficient and creative with much less."
In the past month, faculty have received letter after letter from the university president and deans, sounding alarms about the worsening financial realities and issuing decrees throughout the world's wealthiest university to start pinching pennies. They've attended endless meetings on how to retrench and cope amid tough times.
"People say, 'My God, Harvard?' It's like Warren Buffett or Donald Trump being worried about money," said David H. Barlow, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Boston University....
One professor said the day-to-day atmosphere on campus has grown gloomy. "People have quickly begun to understand, at least on the inside, that this is really serious," said Andrew Gordon, a history professor and member of the faculty council. "The outside may tell us to quit our bellyaching. That's what my father told me last night."
I will SECOND, THIRD, and FOURTH IT, elitist!!!
Lest anyone cry "poor Harvard" in mock sympathy after taking a look at its nearly $30 billion endowment - still the largest in the nation despite a 22 percent drop since July - faculty do have serious concerns. At the top of their worries is losing out on a generation of young academic talent, as hiring has become virtually impossible....
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Smaller budgets could also weaken Harvard's foreign language programs. A limit proposed on visiting faculty could mean classes become larger, caps are put on enrollment, or faculty are asked to teach longer hours.
Michael D. Smith, dean of the arts and sciences faculty, has also curtailed the travel budget, cutting his own nationwide jaunts to meet with alumni by 40 percent, he said. Now, he waits for them to pass through Cambridge. He also expect to see fewer consultants hired for various university projects. And instead of flying in world-famous lecturers, he's directing colleagues to look in their own backyard....
Good! That will HELP the CARBON FOOTPRINT, won't it?
But don't feel TOO SORRY for Harvard, readers:
But the festivities will not entirely lose their glow. Harvard being Harvard, the faculty room is plush - adorned with crystal chandeliers, Oriental carpets, and marble busts and oil paintings of Harvard's presidents and famous alumni. The mint-green walls are accented with Greek columns. Revelers will feast on puff pastries, canapes, and other hors d'oeuvres as a student plays seasonal music from the grand piano in the corner.
"I want it to cost less but not seem like it costs less," Smith said. "We can't eliminate everything and make it miserable to be here."
The out-of-touch-with-regular-people aspect of these elite richers really troubles me, readers. Are YOU or YOUR SCHOOL sitting on $30 BILLION dollars? You are lucky if it is still open and funded!!!
