Well, That Was Expensive Larry Summers announced today that Harvard will spend $50 million to recruit, pay and otherwise support women and minority faculty members.

Wow.

I guess this isn't surprising; as I reported in Harvard Rules, Summers indirectly paid Skip Gates about a million dollars to stay at Harvard. Expand that to departments across the university, and $50 million isn't a huge surprise.

I can't argue with the goals of this initiative; Harvard needs more women and minority faculty members.

I also can't help but wonder if there wasn't a better way to address this issue. And very possibly, for Harvard, a cheaper one. But that's what happens when you have the president over a barrel. Imagine if Summers had tried to say no to the requests of the two committees he appointed to investigate these issues....

Here's an interesting question, though: Whose budget will all this money come from? The president's? FAS's? Every school's?

I would suspect the latter...and also that not all the deans are going to be happy about this. But we'll see when the details emerge.  ¶ 5:58 PM