Shleifer's Words
Marcella Bombardieri got
a statement from Andrei Shleifer regarding his loss of title:
"I was a Professor of Economics last week, and I am a Professor of Economics this week," Shleifer said in a written statement. "My students, my colleagues and my work are what matter to me."
We can assume this is spin
. After all, Shleifer didn't worry
too much about his students when he was spending all that time in Russia
. And if he was so concerned about his colleagues, he might not have put them in the position of having to stand up for a profiteer (or not).
That statement is also a diss to Whipple V.N. Jones, whoever that may have been. Sorry, Mr. Jones! Your endowed chair didn't mean that much to me anyway.
One wishes that Shleifer would have the grace to say something like, "You know, I made some serious mistakes, and I understand why Harvard needs to take action as a result. I don't like to lose my title, which has been an honor to hold, but I take responsibility for my actions that led to the change, and I hope to do better in the future."
Wouldn't that be a good lesson for Shleifer's students? After all, he really, really cares about them....
