Now we know why Harvard FAS dean Bill Kirby recently announced a slowdown of faculty hiring: he’s projecting deficits in the tens of millions of dollars, starting next year.

Higher-than-expected construction costs are to blame, Kirby says, even as he argues that FAS has been planning for these deficits.

Huh.

For construction overruns to run into, say, $50 million a year—higher and lower figures were guesstimated—someone really has to have been asleep at the wheel. Granted, Harvard’s got a lot going on, but this isn’t the Big Dig here.

Whatever the case, the idea of FAS running a deficit isn’t going to make anyone feel comfortable. Harvard has made so much money, and with such apparent ease, in the last fifteen years or so, the experience of losing money is going to feel very foreign. I would be surprised if there are no administrative consequences as a result.

Especially when combined with this other headline from today’s Crimson: Stalled [Curricular] Review Inches Ahead.