Shots In The Dark

Even though Harvard College is on spring break at the moment, the Crimson follows up the Globe with this story about Harvard's abysmal ranking in a poll of student satisfaction. I suppose because the students are gone, the Crimson interviews a number of professors—Steve Pinker, Harvey Mansfield, et al—about their opinions on the survey. The professors' comments are, with one or two exceptions, inadvertently hilarious, as they merely reflect the prejudices of the person being interviewed and they show just how little Harvard professors know about undergraduate life. Steve Pinker, for example, uses the opportunity to talk (yet again) about what a great humanitarian Larry Summers is, while Mansfield blames the problem on—what a shock—the faculty. (I'm surprised he didn't specify "feminists.")

Here's something I've wondered: Who leaked this document to Marcella Bombardieri in the Boston Globe in the first place? Was it a Summers opponent who wanted to keep the heat on?