The Letter Goes Public
Conrad Harper's letter to Larry Summers and the rest of the Harvard Corporation has been posted on the Harvard website. Because I'm writing from a dial-up connection—yes, dial-up—I can't really quote from it here. No matter; you should read it yourself . It's quite remarkable. We now know that at least one member of the Harvard Corporation called on Larry Summers to resign last spring....
I've long argued that many people at Harvard have embarrassed themselves or done damage to their own reputation in order to defend Larry Summers. Some did so because Summers was or could be responsible for their own professional advancement; some did so out of the belief (mistaken, in my opinion) that they were helping Harvard.
I have also argued that one unintended consequence of the Corporation's choice of Larry Summers might be a complete discrediting of the Corporation, leading to meaningful reform of the secretive, elitist way the Harvard Corporation does business. I still think that's a long shot—at least the second part of the thesis—but we're a little closer to that than we were about a week ago.
