A budget surplus, but a cautious outlook
Harvard reported a $77 million budget surplus in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a slight increase over the previous year, but Thomas Hollister, the University’s chief financial officer and vice president for finance, said the positive results came at the start of a challenging financial environment for higher education that he expects to continue. That environment includes a difficult investment climate that contributed to last year’s 2 percent drop in endowment returns, the impact of which will likely be felt on University spending over the next several years. Hollister, who met with the Gazette for a question-and-answer session to talk about the 2016 Financial Report, said he was confident the University has the planning structures in place to navigate the years ahead, and he nodded to donors past and present whose gifts are providing nearly half of Harvard’s revenue this year. GAZETTE: What are the main takeaways from...