You have mentioned that Summers will not have to teach (whne he returns from sabattical) as part of his University professorship, yet I noticed in several comments that University Professors at Harvard typically have a trackreacord of doing a lot of teaching. Is it usually required, and Summers got a special sweetheart deal?
 

Though many/most of them do, University Professors are not required to teach.
 

Richard. Not so now. They are required to teach but may teach in any faculty of the university. (Even that prerogative was modified a few years ago: the relevant dean must approve, though that is pro forma.)
 

One effect of the Gates appointment is to fill the chair that West would have returned to. Could that be why his campaign to come back suddenly ended? He must have mixed feelings about his friend's good fortune.
 

Anon 4:58; Interesting. I checked this question with a University official just a few weeks ago, because it appears in my piece on the Corporation for 02138, and was told that, no, there is no formal obligation for a University professor to teach. Someone must be wrong....
 

Anon 5:00—Or, possibly, with West staying at Princeton, Harvard wanted to make sure that Gates wouldn't leave....
 

In his Crimson quote on Design School Dean Altshuler, Summers sets a new benchmark for leadership:
"in terms of positive accomplishment per years of service, few Harvard deans can match Altshuler's record"

Does Summers think that this will make his record looke better?
Five years divided by zero is still zero.
 

Princeton people say that despite the new Afro Am initiative there, West was still eager to return to Harvard --but only as University Professor. His reaction to Gates's appointment was not enthusiastic.
 

Another quote of another day (Summers in his deposition for the Shleifer case):

Summers said he was sensitive to “ethics rules,” but testified that “in Washington I wasn’t ever smart enough to predict them . . . things that seemed very ethical to me were thought of as problematic and things that seemed quite problematic to me were thought of as perfectly fine. . . .”
 

"Five years divided by zero is still zero."
Really.