Shots In The Dark: It's Kagan, 3-1, at Harvard

Friday, August 25, 2024

It's Kagan, 3-1, at Harvard

In the Globe, Marcella Bombardieri reports that the gambling website bodog.com is taking bets on who will be Harvard's next president; law school dean Elena Kagan is the current favorite at 3:1; provost Steve Hyman is at 7:2; Radcliffe Institute dean Drew Faust is at 15:1.

(Hmmm...I would lower the odds on her signficantly—she seems at least as likely a choice as Steven Hyman.)

Some of the names are a little silly: Lee Bollinger, for example. Harvard's not about to admit that it should have chosen Bollinger the first time around. Ditto with Harvey Fineberg. And Shirley Tilghman isn't about to leave Princeton. But would Ruth Simmons leave Brown? I think she might. But would Harvard choose a black woman and risk appearing politically correct? (A black woman from Brown, to boot...and think of those cranky alums who think Larry Summers was driven out of town on a PC-rail.)

There's not a chance in a million.

Kagan's a very impressive woman, and very ambitious as well. But one wonders if that wouldn't feel pretty much like appointing a more diplomatic Larry Summers. (On the other hand, that might be just what the Corporation is looking for....)

The plot thickens.....

¶ 10:58 AM

Comments:

I think that last sentence is on the mark. A Law school doth not a university make, and there is no reason the suspect that Kagan has any particular understanding of what a University is. For those who realize that was Summers' fundamental problem the name of Elana Kagan does not create optimism.

# posted by Anonymous : 1:18 PM

But Hyman does.

# posted by Anonymous : 1:20 PM

A law school doth not a university make?
I wonder if the dean of the law school has ever been chosen president? How about twice?

# posted by Anonymous : 2:58 PM

A law school doth not a university make?
I wonder if the dean of the law school has ever been chosen president? How about twice?

# posted by Anonymous : 2:59 PM

Two out of 27 is only that. Derek Bok grew into the position and became deeply learned and interested in higher education by being on the job and by thinking and writing about the subject. That might or might not happen with Kagan, but it is somewhat unusual for such an intellectual sea-change to occur nel mezzo del cammin. The word on Kagan is that she is a very good Dean of the Law School (in the view of most), but not really endowed with broader intellectual curiosity and expertise. That was the problem with Larry Summers, as poster # 1 says, so why go down the same unmapped road again? There must be more predictably succesful options.

# posted by Anonymous : 12:22 AM

Hyman a sign of hope? he was appointed by Summers, wasn't he? He has yet to distance himself from the deep moral crisis in which Summers sunk the University

# posted by Anonymous : 9:18 AM

would someone ask professors matori, ryan and thompson whether their home email connections were jammed at the time of intense faculty discussions...whether their phone lines were intercepted...there should be a limit to what university administrators are allowed to know or try to find out about the faculty...even at times of intense conflict...

hyman knows too much about the darkest side of summers soul...

# posted by Anonymous : 10:24 AM

Eavesdropping on phone lines???? Harvard doth not a genius make...

# posted by Anonymous : 5:16 PM

Posters 1 and 5 are on target. Bok turned out to be an exceptional president, but in his first five years he was disdained by many in FAS. He spent much of his time building up the professional schools (he created the Kennedy School). Eventually he did learn how to lead FAS, and won them over. But he had that Master Manipulator Rosovsky to run interference in the meantime.
Harvard cannot afford that learning period now. And there is no master manipulator to protect a new president.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:35 PM

I bet that whore Gergen is getting himself ready to advise whoever gets appointed pres. Let's hope whoever is appointed has enough sense to stay away that wanker!

# posted by Anonymous : 1:37 AM

Nothing wrong with law school deans as such, but as the 10:35 poster says, Harvard can't afford on the job training this time. That doesn't mean an insider. It means someone who has had some experience and success actually leading (not bossing)at least part of an arts and sciences faculty. That pretty much eliminates all the insiders who are usually mentioned, except perhaps Faust. The difference between leading FAS and any professional school is so much greater than the difference between leading FAS and arts & sciences at another major university. That's why Harvard should be looking outside. (Not much advantage in local experience anyhow since almost everyone at Harvard knows only his/her own school or department. Even the Provost who came from the Medical School never could connect with FAS. And the Economics Dept is not the University, as one recent president learned too late.

# posted by Anonymous : 11:24 AM

To anonymous 10:24 AM: Let's not get paranoid! Harvard doesn't intercept its faculty members' phone lines and e-mail connections.

# posted by Judith Ryan : 6:03 PM

Professor Ryan is right, I'm sure, 10:24. Not that any of us said anything that couldn't have been seen by a third party, the working assumption when dealing with e-mail (I'm assuming I am 10:24's Professor Thompson).

# posted by Richard Thomas : 9:01 PM

I would be interested to hear more from 10:24 on this subject. It's a serious accusation. What makes you think it's true?

# posted by richard : 12:26 AM

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