THE MAKING OF HARVARD'S T ^ A T j r r V T TIVTT? M—y: How the University f^ \ / l V 1 V l l H i &ets ,L sI)a"ls "• <md puts it to work to make more m -v.
by CARL A. VIGELAND Though it is not run for profit—legally, it is a public charity— Harvard is a business. Once a loose academic confederation, it has become a big institutional conglomerate with worldwide connections, getting and spending great sums, the creator and the creation of a lucrative money machine. Its jo-billion endowment is American higher education's oldest and biggest. If its $65()-million annual budget were an index of "sales volume," Harvard would easily rank in the Fortune Five Hundred. During the fifteen years of Derek Bok's administration. University undertakings have grown rapidly in scale and complexity. To fund Harvard's multiple enterprises the President and Fellows rely on a professionalized class of institutional managers, who aggressively expand the endowment, devise innovative financing schemes, and use sophisticated research and marketing methods to cultivate the support of alumni, corporations, and foundations. Harvard's billions can be a hindrance as well as a help, and the institution is sometimes victimized by its own success, unable to convince constituents of its need. Yet at the ripe age II.1.1 STftATlONS IIV Jill l-kt-.^ i.' IMI'IIC,
of 350, Harvard is in robust financial health. When the fiveyear Harvard Campaign closed out at a record $358 million in 1984, it was one more reminder that for the richest of universities, nothing succeeds like success. Money-making activities within a nonprofit educational institution create a tension: Harvard must never appear to be more concerned with money than with education, but in many parts of the University the pursuit of funds has become an urgent, constant, all-pervading end. Increasingly, there are potential conflicts between certain money-making practices and moral and ethical principles with which Harvard has long associated itself. With this in mind, I returned to Cambridge three years ago to write a book about Harvard and money.* To examine Harvard and how it makes money is to be impressed especially by two things: the vitality' of the institution and the reticence of the men—for they are nearly all men—who run it. This duality, which manifests itself in a 'Ciiau Good Fortune: Hox' Harvard Mates Its Money, published in August by Houghton Mifflin. Portions of the hook were adapted for this article. SliPTEMBKR-OeroBER 1986
99