In the Crimson, Anton Troianovski has reported an important story today: the fact of rising deficits at FAS and their impact on college life.

University President Lawrence H. Summers and Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby have been unusually aggressive in pushing for new buildings, letting construction begin before a major donor was secured. Administrators say that Harvard had no choice but to build in order to keep its status as a leading research university, and insist that the Faculty can handle the cost.

But some professors worry, and some financial planners concede, that crucial uncertainties remain in the financial plan…

Among the uncertainties:

—whether the departures of Kirby and Summers will cause fundraising to fall short of targets
—to what extent government money can alleviate the deficit spending (in the case of the stem cell institute, not at all)
—the lack of major donors supporting new building projects

I would add two more uncertainties:
—was fundraising falling short of targets even with Kirby and Summers in place?
—to what extent will financial pressures warp the search for a new FAS dean and president, forcing Derek Bok and the presidential search committee to place greater-than-usual emphasis on candidates’ fundraising abilities?

(Note that a poster below suggests that this would be one reason for eliminating Theda Skocpol from being named FAS dean. The poster claims that she wouldn’t be a good fundraiser, and this at a time when fundraising is urgent.)

To his credit, Troianovski also finds several instances where this deficit spending is forcing budget cutbacks that have a direct impact on student life: departments with unfilled professorships, cutbacks in grant money, budget cuts in the operations of the student houses. “We’re saving shoelaces,” says Peter Hall, director of the Gunzburg Center for European Studies.

It’s a problem those students who lined up to cheer President Summers on his resignation day might want to consider. The impact of Larry Summers on student life is more subtle, and more mixed, than simply his attendance at pizza feeds and his support of a student center, fine as those things may be….