The Crimson Defends Its Reporting Yesterday I noted that departing Harvard professor Mark Rosenzweig had challenged the Crimson's reporting of the explanations for his escape to New Haven. The Crimson originally reported that Rosenzweig was leaving the Harvard Center for International Development because he was frustrated over President Summers' lack of support for the center. Rosenzweig promptly penned a letter to the Crimson saying that this was not the case, and suggesting that the Crimson had unfairly edited his e-mailed responses to their questions.

In his letter, Rosenzweig said this: "This is part of the statement I sent to The Crimson reporter when he was writing the article: 'I believe in CID, and I did not go to Yale because of unhappiness with Harvard, but because of the more assured and superior resources and somewhat more agreeable intellectual directions at Yale, where I was once a faculty member.'"

So what's the real story? I contacted the Crimson to find out, and got the following response from reporters Zachary M. Seward and Daniel J. Hemel. The first part is their statement in response to Rosenzweig's letter; the second is the full transcript of their on-the-record e-mailed questions and Rosenzweig's un-edited responses. So you can decide for yourself if the Crimson was unfair, or if Rosenzweig is just backtracking:


Professor Rosenzweig's letter is a helpful addendum to our story on CID that ran last Wednesday. Were we to write the story again, we would have included the sentence he highlights ("...I did not go to Yale because of unhappiness with Harvard...") to give a more complete view of the situation. So we're glad he pointed it out in his letter.

That said, it does not change any of the substance of our story, from the
lede on down. Professor Rosenzweig submitted several lengthy answers to
our questions via e-mail, of which that sentence is a small part. Asked,
"Why did you decide to leave Harvard/CID?" he responded, "Both Harvard and
Yale have extraordinary faculty and graduate students. The Yale Economic
Growth Center, however, has a permanent endowment; CID does not." In
answer to a later question about the possible disbanding or reorganization
of CID, Professor Rosenzweig pinned the blame for the center's scarce
resources directly on President Summers, criticizing him in passages we
quoted extensively in Wednesday's story.

Our story was based on the totality of Professor Rosenzweig's two e-mails
to us on Monday, Sept. 12. The following are all of our questions and all
of his answers. Everything was on-the-record.

[CRIMSON] Why did you decide to leave Harvard/CID?

[ROSENZWEIG] Both Harvard and Yale have extraordinary faculty and graduate
students. The Yale Economic Growth Center, however, has a permanent
endowment; CID does not. Its funds run out in two years. The Yale Economic
Growth Center has enormous resources and relatively more independence from
administration bureacracy, and has a more than 30-year history of
distinguished scholarship. Nevertheless, I had tremendous colleagues and
great staff support at Harvard; I am giving up a lot.

[CRIMSON] In your statement upon being named director of the CID, you
said: "Harvard has a unique opportunity to pull together the multiple
disciplines needed to address development issues that are faced both
within the U.S. and internationally." What opportunities does Yale/EGC
offer that Harvard/CID did not?

[ROSENZWEIG] Yale has resources; CID does not. The center at Yale is more
narrowly focused on the economics of development, and on advancing the
scientific foundations for understanding the development process. CID is
interdisciplinary and more focused on policy. These are great attibutes.
And in a short time (one year) at CID we had begun to realize some of the
potential. We had the opportunity to begin a program on indoor air
pollution (a major source of ill-health in low-income countries that
requires knowledge of health, economics, energy polciy, and environmental
science to understand) and researchers from multiple schools and
disciplines associated with CID won two awards this past year, from NIH
and NSF, totalling more than 2 million dollars. My own interest and
participation in this initiative, and a large component (but not all) of
this money, would not have arisen without CID. Thus, the faculty resources
were getting together. The faculty talent and willingness to collaborate
across disciplines are there, but there is little support provided by the
Harvard administration.

[CRIMSON] I've heard that you'll still be teaching a course with Professor
Rodrik at the Kennedy School. Is that correct?

[ROSENZWEIG] Yes. The MPAID program is a great program and is unique to
Harvard. The course taught by Dani and I is a keystone in the program. It
is also fun to teach.

[CRIMSON] Before your appointment, President Summers said that he would
consider reorganizing the infrastructure for development studies at
Harvard -- and possibly eliminating the CID altogether. Do you think it's
necessary for the CID to remain in existence, or would an alternate
arrangement work better?

[ROSENZWEIG] I still believe in the sentiments I expressed when I took
this job and that the CID structure is the corrrect way to go about
accomplishing the mission. President Summers considers himself an expert
in this area. Some think that President Summers wants to (perhaps
sub-consciously) organize the study of development around himself, and
that is why little or no resources are provided to CID. Having Larry
Summers as a collaborator within the framework of CID, instead, would be a
great plus, but he has not indicated while I was around any interest in
CID's vision or accomplishments. CID's unique policy-oriented,
interdisciplinary mission grounded in science and led by Harvard faculty
(rather than the short-term outsiders doing piece work that is the norm in
other centers) is well worth preserving. I believe in CID, and I did not
go to Yale because of unhappiness with Harvard, but because of the more
assured and superior resources and somewhat more agreeable intellectual
directions at Yale, where I was once a faculty member.

[FROM A FOLLOW-UP E-MAIL LATER THAT DAY]

[CRIMSON] We have heard that President Summers never met with you before
or after appointing you to be CID director. Is that correct?

[ROSENZWEIG] Yes (nor talked with me). So no one can say that he
interfered with the Center!

[CRIMSON] You wrote: "Some think that President Summers wants to (perhaps
sub-consciously) organize the study of development around himself, and
that is why little or no resources are provided to CID." Does that mean
that President Summers is pushing his particular perspective on
globalization/development? Or that he simply wants personal control over
grants? Or both? (Or neither?)

[ROSENZWEIG] I don't know - I doubt he wants control over grants.

[CRIMSON] Additionally, when you say "some think," does that include
yourself?

[ROSENZWEIG] I do not understand the reasons for failure to commit, one
way or another. Larry Summers did help bring to Harvard some very large
and important projects in recent years. Perhaps he had not yet had time to
turn his attention to CID, although CID focuses on issues which he does
care about.

[CRIMSON] Do you believe that Dani Rodrik should be named as your
successor? We have heard that political differences between him and
President Summers have kept Professor Rodrik from the directorship. First,
do you believe that is true? Second, can you help us understand what those
political differences are? I do not know if it is true.

[ROSENZWEIG] Dani should be the one to define those differences, but there
are real, and well-known, differences in perspective on determining the
appropriate policies that will succeed in increasing economic growth. One
other difference I see is that Dani is a currently active scholar who
continues to study and add significantly to the understanding of the
development process and to evaluating development policy. Larry Summers
has not been an active researcher in the field in many years, but does
have strong views on economic development. Dani would be a great director
of CID. Larry Summers can be a great President of Harvard.

[CRIMSON] Finally, you say that the CID's money runs out in two years.
Where does that money come from? Has President Summers made any effort to
raise additional funds for the center? (And do you know -- exactly or
approximately -- what the CID's annual budget is?)

[ROSENZWEIG] The money is the endowment that was shifted from HIID to CID
at the dissolution of HIID. Since that time, almost all of the expenditure
by CID has been from that endowment. The process is decapitalization - one
of the rare instances in which endowment is spent down rather than just
the income from the endowment. Given the current expenditure of CID the
endowment will be spent down completely in two years. As far as I know
(and I think I know), no effort has been made to raise money for CID.
Aimee Fox can tell you what the annual budget is - remember that a large
portion of the budget is spent just renting space (none of the Yale EGC
budget goes to renting space, or paying "overhead" to any school - at
Harvard, 20% of the income is taxed by KSG. So for every dollar spent on
rent or on providing resources to students or faculty to pursue projects
or engage interesting speakers, $1.20 is taken out of the endowment. This
is standard practice at Harvard, not a special tax on CID).  ¶ 7:15 AM