Shots In The Dark: A Good Day for Larry Summers

Tuesday, May 17, 2024

A Good Day for Larry Summers

I'm on deadline , so I haven't had the chance to read the reports of the two diversity committees. Which means that my impressions today will be kind of like most people's....

And my impression is that this is a good day for Larry Summers.

To start, the coverage of yesterday's announcement is significant. Front page of the Times, two stories in the Globe—here's one, here's the other—Reuters, the Boston Herald, the Financial Times, the New York Sun, InsideHigherEd.com, and a host of other, smaller outlets.

There'll be more to come.

Second, $50 million sounds like a lot. And academics are always susceptible to being bought off.

Third, Summers is saying the right things. For example: ''The objective is not just [to put forward] a set of recommendations, but to bring about a set of very important cultural changes," he said on a conference call with reporters. ''Universities like Harvard were designed a long time ago by men and for men. To fully succeed on these issues, we're going to have to address issues of culture. " (From Marcella Bomardieri's story in the Boston Globe)

There are still lots of questions, of course. Where will the money come from? Over how many years will it be spread out? Will the new diversity chief have any real power? Will the changes affect the autonomy of individual departments and schools? Will they add to the centralizing power of Mass Hall?

And most of all, does Larry Summers really believe what he's saying? Can a 50-year-old man change?

Some of this will become clear in time. Today, Larry Summers is probably feeling a lot better about his future than he was a couple months ago.

¶ 8:31 AM

Comments:

Ok, a few comments on Summers' trumpeted $50 million commitment to diversity:
1. Nowhere is there any commitment to $50 million in incremental spending, at least as far as I've been able to see. Harvard already has $25 million in an Outreach Fund to hire women and minorities; it offers some childcare scholarships; Radcliffe has various programs aimed at helping women, etc. When all these are added up, they may go a long way to the $50 million figure. How much incremental money is there really in this new plan? Surely Summers, as an economist, is aware that evading the question of whether this is incremental funding is a fundamental problem.
2. $50 million over ten years; that's $5 million a year (neglecting discounting). Not exactly a heap of money for Harvard (see today's story on administrative compensation).
3. The administration is also trying to claim major credit for creating a "new" post of vice provost for diversity. The FAS position of dean for affirmative action was eliminated two years ago. Despite loud calls to reinstate this position, Summers and Kirby strenuously resisted doing so over the past year. Now they've finally given in. And they're going to claim this as a major new initiative demonstrating their commitment to diversity!? Note that the new vice provost will likely report to Summers rather than Kirby, further centralizing control.

Overall, my impression is this gets Harvard back to about where it was 3 years ago. For the president and deans to be claiming this as sending strong signals, and demonstrating new commitments, and for everyone else to be congratulating them, is really stomach-turning. Political opportunism and credit-claiming at its worst.

# posted by Anonymous : 5:07 PM

These are all good points...I'd like to see someone in the MSM follow up on them. I'd ask Larry Summers' office, but, well, you know...it's not going to happen.

# posted by richard : 3:39 PM

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