More on the Summers Brothers
The Daily Pennsylvanian's
article on Larry Summers advances the story with quotes from Richard Summers, one of Larry's younger brothers.
Key quote: "There is a national, increasing tension in large universities between [the] corporate needs of a complex institution and the old-style university governance, a community of scholars," Richard Summers said. "Larry's found himself in the crosshairs of that kind of conflict. The faculty at Harvard want to be in charge."
Some caveats: Richard Summers neatly skips over the role of his brother's personality and leadership style. And I think he overstates the case. The faculty at Harvard doesn't want to be "in charge." Go to any faculty meeting and see how low the attendance is, and you'll see just how involved in university governance the faculty wants to be. They don't want to run the place...but they do want to be
involved in running the place. The difference may be subtle, but it's real.
Still, Richard Summers does put his finger on something that's true at Harvard and elsewhere: the corporate model versus the community of scholars model. You might even call it the struggle for the soul of a university.
