Larry Summers and the Woman Problem
According to the Crimson, when
one female student asked Larry Summers about the possibility of a women's center at Harvard, Summers responded, “A women’s center is one of the last things I want to see on campus.”
As the Crimson puts it, "a spokesman for Summers declined to comment on the anecdote." (Is that you, John Longbrake? Are we back to the Lucie McNeil days, when the president's only spokesperson refused to allow herself to be identified?)
I'm inclined to believe this anecdote. The language sounds like Summers, and so does the opinion.
I'm equally sure that Summers could make compelling arguments to back up his conclusion.
But so much of leadership is about voice, about telling people things they don't want to hear in a way that minimizes tension, rather than exacerbating it. (And here I disagree with conservatives who seem to think that great leadership in a college president means sticking it to women, minorities, liberals, etc., by giving them a rhetorical middle-finger and then feigning shock at their outrage.)
When Summers was in Washington, he learned that he couldn't get away with this kind of remark because there were people more powerful than he who would make his life a living hell for it.
Now, he clearly doesn't feel that way; no individual is powerful enough at Harvard to challenge him, particularly not a student.
The result: a gratuitously rough remark to a student who is, after all, probably 20 years old or so.....
