Trump hits Harvard hard

Five charts to start your day

Good morning – here are your five chart for the day. Each one comes snap stat, quick take and why it matters. Skim, steal, forward (but always credit!!).

CHART 1 • Harvard's Revenue Under Siege

The numbers are absolutely staggering. Harvard's revenue structure reveals an institution caught between its massive endowment wealth and critical dependency on federal support. With endowment income of $2.4 billion representing 37% of total operating revenue, the university distributed more than a third of its $6.5 billion budget from investment returns alone in fiscal year 2024.

Yet the potential losses could cause trouble. Federal research funding faces a worst-case scenario loss of $700 million, whilst college and graduate school operations could lose $110 million. These cuts, totaling nearly $1 billion, would represent roughly 15% of Harvard's total operating budget – a devastating blow even for America's wealthiest university.

The endowment, despite its $53.2 billion valuation, isn't the silver bullet it appears. 80% of the trust is restricted to specific schools, programmes, or activities, leaving precious little flexibility for emergency funding. The university typically operates on a 5-5.5% annual distribution rate, meaning Harvard would need to nearly double its endowment draw to compensate for federal losses – a move that would threaten intergenerational equity principles that have guided the institution for centuries.

More troubling still, Harvard's dependence on endowment distributions has grown dramatically from 21% twenty years ago to nearly 40% today. This increasing reliance on investment returns, combined with the potential federal funding cliff, exposes the fundamental fragility beneath Harvard's veneer of financial invincibility.

Snap stat – $940 million: Total potential federal funding losses facing Harvard

Quick take – Even America's richest university isn't immune to Washington's funding axe

Why it matters – Higher education's funding model faces existential reckoning nationwide

Steal-this-caption – "Harvard's billions can't buy immunity from political headwinds"

Source: Wall Street Journal

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