And, in Other Harvard News
...the
Faculty Council called for a halt in the FAS dean search. This is a dramatic step, but if you think about it, it's also a logical step. How could any dean possibly be chosen in the current atmosphere? After all, many people on the faculty don't think that Larry Summers will be president for much longer. So what would be the point in working with him to choose a dean he could work with? And who would take a job working with Summers suspecting that Summers is about to leave and his successor might promptly choose a new dean?
It's nuts...and the decision to call for a halt to the process shows that the faculty gets this, even if Larry Summers and the Corporation don't.
Nonetheless, it's a dramatic move that shows how the current crisis really is paralyzing the university. And if you think that the faculty isn't getting any work done, you can imagine that Mass Hall isn't exactly a beehive of productivity these days. And I wonder how that fundraising stuff is going?
In an
accompanying Crimson article, Lois Beckett and Johannah Cornblatt write that the "Summers storm could sidetrack the [curricular] review," which surely falls into the category of stating the obvious.
The last two paragraphs of the story carry what seems to me like the real news value—this quote:
<<“I think with Kirby resigning, the future is very much up in the air,” said Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker, a member of the review’s Committee on General Education.
Pinker said that he and some of his colleagues aren’t disappointed by the review’s derailment. “Frankly, I wouldn’t shed any tears if it didn’t pass,” Pinker said. >>
Pinker might just as well have poured gasoline on the review and tossed a match on it. He helped write the thing, and even he can't support it.
Of course, if he wouldn't shed any tears if it didn't pass, why should it make any difference whether Bill Kirby was remaining dean or not?
The answer that, with Kirby or without him, it's a lousy review, and Harvard should just accept that and move on.
And Crimson folks—when you get a quote like that from an architect of the review and one of Larry Summers' most vocal supporters (well, at least he used to be)—that's your second paragraph, not your second-to-last. IMHO, anyway.
