Except now that ice cream cone is now melting, or something.

For a profile published Sunday by The Associated Press, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust was asked how the economic downturn and the subsequent collapse of Harvard’s endowment has changed Harvard in her two years as president.

Her explanation went something like this: Think of Harvard like an ice cream cone. Two years ago, when the school (ice cream parlor?) wasn’t tight for cash, you could get any flavor you wanted for your ice cream cone. But not anymore.

“We can’t have chocolate and vanilla and strawberry,” she said. “We have to decide which one.”

Alas, Faust did not indicate which flavor she foresees the future Harvard tasting like.