Washington — As the subprime-mortgage crisis emerged over the past few months, colleges and universities have feared that the tightening of credit might hurt their ability to finance construction projects.

It’s now happening.

Examples being reported today include Brandeis University, which borrowed $62-million last March — with a variable rate — to build a new science center and a dormitory. Weekly borrowing costs on the bonds have risen from $40,000 last year to $80,000 this past month, The Boston Globe reported.

And the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which refinanced $557-million in borrowing in 2005, is troubled by the fact that the amount includes $196-million of auction-rate bonds that reset weekly, according to a report today in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A University of Pennsylvania spokesman, Ron G. Ozio, declined to comment for the article. But Brandeis’s chief operating officer, Peter B. French, told the Globe he’s stunned by the degree to which the subprime-mortgage crisis has affected his institution. “It’s amazing how this has penetrated to the schools,” Mr. French said. —Paul Basken