Harvard’s deficit swelled four-fold in the 2013 fiscal year, increasing to $34 million this year from $7.9 million last year, according to a Friday report from the university.

The University said that their expenses exceeded their revenue by 1 percent, largely due to University-wide increases in wages as well as federal budget cuts for research grants, according to the New York Times.

Administrators remained optimistic in light of the university endowment’s 11.3 percent positive investment return and a 17 percent increase in donations to the school, both of which boosted revenue. The Harvard endowment’s investment return still fell short of many of its peer schools, including Yale’s, which earned an investment return of 12.5 percent in its last fiscal year.

Harvard reported that the deficit will be manageable because it is less than 1 percent of the school’s $4.2 billion revenue. Administrators said they plan to modify employee benefits and use technology to maximize time efficiency in order to fight the deficit. They also noted that they must still make difficult choices to reduce the deficit in coming years.

Yale’s 2013 fiscal deficit, however, totaled an even greater $39 million.