| DOWNTOWN Harvard needs you By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist, 6/2/2004 If I am Harvard president Larry Summers, my biggest problem is explaining why $19 billion isn't as much money as it seems. A decade ago, when the world's richest university officially launched its last capital campaign, the school's endowment was already huge, at $5.7 billion. The fund-raising goal at the time, under then-president Neil Rudenstine, was $2 billion, and five years later, in 1999, Harvard closed the campaign at a record $2.6 billion. Now Summers is quietly putting together his team for a new capital campaign, and the endowment is $19.2 billion. And Harvard's needs, Summers is telling his biggest donors, have never been greater. The goal has yet to be set, the university says, but those expected to give the most are talking about breathtaking numbers in $4 billion to $5 billion range, easily the largest capital campaign in the history of higher education. "If I had to stick a pin in the donkey, I'd say $6 billion," says one wealthy alumnus who has participated in several of the focus groups Summers has been running with donors. Summers' plans will make the current $400 million capital campaign at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Business School's $500 million campaign look like warm-up acts. Donella M. Rapier, who helped lead the business school campaign, has been named vice president for alumni affairs and development to head the new drive. Professor Howard H. Stevenson, another key architect of the business school campaign, also has been recruited. The campaign will not be officially announced for maybe two years, when a third of the money has been committed, but already Harvard is setting aside large gifts to be included in the total, one executive said. "You don't ever want to set up a goal you can't achieve," Rapier said yesterday. Where will all the money go? Think Allston. Those 200 acres on the other side of the river represent Harvard's future, but it will take billions to turn that potential into the kind of premier life-sciences magnet that Summers sees. Summers, however, is moving faster than most expected. While Allston will be a key to the alumni pitch, Harvard is planning to use its huge endowment for seed money by directing a half-percent of the endowment annually into a fund for new buildings and renovations. At the endowment's current size, the assessment could yield more than $2 billion over the next two decades, and more if the endowment continues to appreciate. Beyond Allston, there will be great competition for the new money among the deans. High on Summers' priority list is upgrading the undergraduate curriculum, in particular improving the student-faculty ratios by adding new professors. Summers wants more money for student travel and public service through financial aid at the underfunded schools like education, divinity, and public health. And did I mention science -- and more science? For those already worried about Harvard's growth, you haven't seen anything yet. Harvard is moving into the most ambitious expansion in its long history. . . . It is easy to see how even smart people confuse Harvard with a bank. Last month, state Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., a Pittsfield Democrat, was pushing a budget amendment that would require the university to pay market rates to lease the two acres it uses for its picturesque Newell Boathouse on the Charles. After all, he argued, Harvard had one of the great sweetheart deals of all time: a 1,000-year lease, with an option for another 1,000 years at $1 a year! What his office downplayed is that Harvard was granted perpetual use of the boathouse land in exchange for ceding to the Commonwealth -- for free -- 46 acres more than 100 years ago for what is now Storrow Drive. What were those 46 acres worth, even then? Nuciforo's money grab went nowhere, but others will be lining up -- even if $19.2 billion isn't as much as it seems. Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902. This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 6/2/2004.
|