End of "Summers" at Harvard - Harvard Pres. Resigns

Dr. Lawrence 'foot in the mouth' Summers in a letter to the university today announced his resignation as the president of Harvard University. The resignation brings to end a tumultuous five year reign dogged by bitter disputes with faculty. Derek Bok, university’s president from 1971 to 1991, has agreed to serve as interim president until Harvard’s governing corporation can find a replacement for Summers. [ Boston Globe]

Dr. Lawrence Summers, an MIT and Harvard educated economist who worked as the treasury secretary under Clinton, was appointed as president of the University about five years ago.

In January 2005, he received a lot of flak for a speech questioning women’s aptitude in science, which led to a vote of no-confidence by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences[FAS], the largest division within Harvard. Since then a number of professors have openly questioned not only his political leanings but his efficacy and leadership style, which they have termed as brass and overbearing. The matters came to a head last month when Dr. William Kirby, a well loved Dean at Harvard resigned under ‘unclear’ circumstances. His resignation was widely seen as a mark that the things had come to a boil between the administration and the faculty committee. FAS had scheduled a second, unprecedented no confidence vote a week from today as a response to Dr. Kirby’s resignation.

The Downfall:

Unlike many other university presidents, whose primary roles are fundraising, Harvard presidents are at a privileged place to think about other things. Of course it is the other things that get you in trouble most frequently. One of Dr. Summers most ambitious policies was tailored towards bringing more synergy between the tangentially aligned independent departments and schools riddled by territorial nitpicking. In short, he wanted to make the beast efficient. Dr. Summers reiterated his failed agenda in his speech, "We cannot maintain pre-eminence in intellectual fields if we remain constrained by artificial boundaries of departments and Schools. "Each Tub On Its Own Bottom" is a vivid, but limiting, metaphor for decision making at Harvard. We will not escape its limits unless our Schools and Faculties increase their willingness to transcend parochial interests in support of broader university goals."

Article Author: Spincycle

Spincycle is interested in questions around media, governance, and political economy. He strongly values reading good fiction for he feels that it imparts the important value of empathy.

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