The Crimson Weighs In
Given that I slagged the Crimson yesterday, I should give credit where it's due: this piece on turnover in University Hall, written by Liz Goodwin and Daniel Shuker, is a useful contribution to the debate over what's going on at Harvard.
Goodwin and Shuker describe the dramatic turnover in personnel at University Hall and consider whether that's a good or bad thing.
Couple points.
First, I wish they'd dug a little deeper in some instances. What exactly are the effects of this turnover? If critics say that University Hall has become infected by a "corporate culture," what exactly do they mean by that? Otherwise, Dick Gross has an easy time rebutting the charge by pointing out that he doesn't wear a tie to work. And if there is a corporate culture at University Hall, is that automatically a bad thing? I have no idea. Sounds bad, but it ain't inherently so. Tell me more....
What both sides seem to be arguing about is whether or not students are well-served by the changes in University Hall, and that's the one part of the article where Goodwin and Shuker drop the ball a little.....
Point two: There's a very interesting feud shaping up between Harry Lewis and his replacement, Dick Gross.
Consider this exchange (wrongfully buried at the end of the piece, where the Crimson traditionally puts its juiciest quotes, like Ed Glaeser's comparison of David McClintick's writing to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion):
“Many long-serving educational administrators have inexplicably left Harvard in recent years,” Lewis wrote. “They left Harvard, or were forced to leave, because they did not fit into the new, retail-store university, in which orders are taken, defects are papered over to get the merchandise out the door, and the customers are sent home happy by ‘student-service professionals.’” Gross responds that he has “no idea what a student-service professional is,” adding that “no one on my staff could conceivably be described in that way.”
Having said all that, kudos to Goodwin and Shuker for a solid piece....
