In the boom years, no one dared to doubt Harvard's financial strength. Until the last fiscal year, its endowment income was still as high as $36.9 billion.
But today, Harvard is not only unable to make ends meet and has a tight budget, but is also in a state of chaos with layoffs, bankruptcies, and trash bins that have not been cleaned.
The economy is not doing well, and life in the United States is not going well either.
In the August issue of Vanity Fair, financial reporter Nina.
A special feature written by Nina Munk shows that eight Ivy League schools, including Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Cornell, are in dire financial straits.
Private universities in the United States rely on donations. Today, the donations received by these universities have dropped by an average of nearly 25% compared with previous years.
As for Harvard University, the richest school in the world, it is experiencing the worst and most dangerous economic crisis in its 373-year history.
In the prosperous years, no one dared to doubt Harvard's financial resources. The basic salary of each full-time professor reached US$192,000, which was far ahead among American universities. Scholarships for students amounted to US$338 million per year. These figures increased Harvard's aura.
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In the fiscal year that just past (ended June 30, 2008), Harvard received $36.9 billion in endowments.
However, in the first quarter of the new fiscal year, endowments dropped sharply by 22% (between July and October last year, Harvard received $8 billion less in endowments than expected).
A huge deficit has been created.
Nina.
Monk lamented that the Ivy League's "Gilded Age" (the Gilded Age) has come to an end.
Harvard University has always been generous and spent heavily to build campus facilities. It commissioned Robert to build a new medical building costing US$260 million without blinking an eye.
It would not be a problem at all for Robert A.M. Stern (a veteran American architectural firm) to design a giant Harvard Law School annex building.
Now, however, the sick atmosphere of Wall Street has filled the air.
Strolling on the Harvard campus next to the Charles River in Boston, the first donor John.
The statue of John Harvard shines brightly, but the nearly overcrowded trash can at its feet seems to be a bad omen.
As for Harvard's most ambitious grand project, the Science Complex, which is expected to be completed in 2011 and cost more than $1.2 billion, it has been forced to halt construction.
Since recruitment and construction of the institute have been frozen, conflicts among students, teachers and management are brewing.
Monk said that during the process of writing this report, Harvard officials refused to cooperate with her, and she became "the most unpopular person."
However, there is an endless stream of information providers from all walks of life, and it seems that everyone is full of complaints and has something to say to the "powerful people".
Many people believe that Larry Larry, the current chief economic adviser to the Obama administration and former Harvard president.
Larry Summers is not to blame.
Forget about free coffee The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard's core school in Massachusetts, now faces a $220 million budget deficit, a figure equivalent to one-fifth of the Faculty's total annual budget.
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When Monk visited the college's auditorium, student unions were holding a meeting, as undergraduates with the least say will undoubtedly be the casualties in the first round of layoffs.
The entire campus was in a state of chaos, with faculty angry and students feeling cheated.
Smith, a professor in the Department of Engineering and Applied Science, sighed: "At Harvard, cost control must start with the undergraduate budget, not the salary of top managers." In addition, some infrastructure will also be downgraded.
The air conditioner thermostat will drop from 22°C to 20°C in winter; students and faculty will have to forget about free coffee; the number of free shuttle buses between colleges will be reduced by half; and the hot breakfasts in the undergraduate department will also be reduced.
Gone are the memories of bacon, poached eggs and waffles, replaced by cold ham, cheese, cereal and fruit.
In the words of Harvard University’s campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, “This is the richest department at Harvard. If they can’t even provide coffee, you can imagine the situation.”
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Free coffee is not a big deal, what students are really worried about is the difference in teaching resources.
A Harvard insider who asked not to be named said that it is obvious that Harvard is about to undergo large-scale layoffs. Courses will be streamlined, large classes will replace small classes, fewer professors, teaching assistants, guards and support staff, a more horizontal management structure, and isolation.
Libraries open to geniuses, research funds distributed prudently, coffee shops replaced by vending machines, junior varsity sports teams relegated to clubs, no salary increases and bonuses, and trash cans all over the campus that are devastated but no one cleans them.
Harvard is not a business. In Harvard's dictionary, "cost control" is a new word. They prefer to call it "adjustment" or "re-evaluation."
"Someone has to take responsibility for the judgment they made at the time," said one former Harvard executive.