Bad Things, Good Place
In the Boston Globe,
Matthew Storin counsels schools stuck in scandal, and asks, "Does anyone think Harvard permanently lost a millimeter of prestige over the Summers imbroglio?"
It's obviously a rhetorical question...but if I may answer it nonetheless, yes, I do. Not much prestige, perhaps, not in the long run. But some. In my opinion, what has most hurt the university is the widespread perception of its faculty as selfish, lazy, and out of control, probably the dominant narrative promulgated by the media in analyzing the resignation of Larry Summers.
If it is true that Larry Summers has been feeding this storyline to journalists such as John Tierney and
Mort Zuckerman, then the president of Harvard has himself been contributing to the damage of the institution in order to rationalize his own ouster. Unfortunate.
Of course, if Harvard gets back on track under Derek Bok—in fact, it already has—and the faculty works well with a new dean and a new president, then suddenly it won't seem quite so out of control or power-hungry.....
