Richard,
You seem to be unconvinced by my suggestion the other day that you wait for results at least until Pres.-elect Faust has become Pres. Faust. Since you're a great researcher on Harvard, why don't you set out for us the achievements, utterances, etc. of Pres. Bok, Rudenstine and Summers in the months leading up to the assumption of their respective presidencies. I looked at your book, which I own, you'll be pleased to hear, and couldn't find anything in the case of LS beyond his talking with faculty in the summer of 2001, a good thing, but no different from what DF is doing. And according to yesterday's Crimson his presidency came 'after years of stagnancy', so why did he wait till the fall of 2001 (which according to your book mostly consisted in helping the exit of Cornell West) to put together his ideas for the University?

If I'm right in thinking there is no difference among the four, why are you so insistent in expecting a difference from DF? Do tell. In fact I think Pres.-elect Faust has been the MOST pro-active pres.-elect in Harvard history.

As for DF's quote in Bloomberg, that science 'is an area in which structures need to catch up with realities', ask colleagues in FAS science departments, HMS, School of Public Health, and the like if that is boilerplate in its implications.
 

Yeah, that didn't sound like boilerplate to me. Not my ox facing goring, but I think if it were I'd like my ox-armor forged in boilerplate a little steelier than that.

So to speak.

SE
 

Richard,

I recognize that my daily blog posts don't take a long-term view, and in raising the question of voice, I don't address lots of other questions. I think that in appointments, for example, President-elect Faust has made some interesting choices.

I can't speak to the actions of incoming presidents Bok and Rudenstine as well as you can, but it is my memory that LHS took a higher profile than Drew Faust is now in his early months. Of course, that may have been a mistake.

But of course, the situation is different now; despite Derek Bok's capable leadership, simply by virtue of his temporary status there has been a presidential void at Harvard, and so I think there is a vacuum that needs to be filled. Certainly that is the impression I get from alumni I talk with.

Moreover, there is more attention being paid to the presidency now, thanks partly to people like me, thanks partly to the way the media in general has changed, thanks partly to the Internet. President Faust is going to receive more coverage than most Harvard presidents have in the past. Some of it, like most of my posts on this blog, will reflect short-term impressions; some of it, like my 02138 piece, will pull back somewhat; and some of it will take a long view indeed. That needs to be considered when comparing the early days of the last several presidents.

As for the definition of boilerplate...well, perhaps I was too hard on this particular example. But I do think that finding the proper public voice--one that isn't controversial and offensive, but isn't bland either--is an ongoing challenge for President Faust.
 

I don't think that Commencement has traditionally been the place for highlighting the profile of the president-elect. That's what Inauguration is for.
 

A good point, Judith.
 

OK, Richard, running a blog is probably incompatible with assessing what is actually happening away from the public eye. There is clearly a tremendous amount of discussion and planning going on with DF and various groups, corporation, provost, new dean, new librarian, medical school decanal candidates. Some of the visions being formed may not appeal to all of us, and I'll be the first to be critical where criticism is due, when the time comes.

I think the cumulative impression of your blog is one of opposition to DF, and I've told people who have expressed that view to me that I don't think that necessarily reflects your own point of view, but it is an impression.

What do you think of Peter Galison on Allston? Quite provocative, and likely to go, rightly in my view, up against some of the discussion and planning to which I refer above:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519239

Richard
 

Richard,

You're right that my view of DGF is not primarily negative--by no means. I think there are a lot of questions, but of course it's impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions at this point. The most serious assessment I've made is the 02138 piece, which really says more about how she became president than where she's going from here.

I will look at the piece you suggest....
 

A very interesting argument, and it does strike me as plausible. But the suggestion for a much greater incorporation of the arts--though I think it's something DGF would listen to sympathetically--doesn't seem to me necessarily to solve the problem.
 

Rich,

Wow, you really got it wrong in your profile on Faust and the search process leading to her appointment. The Crimson's story, http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519220
paints a much clearer picture and cites many more reliable sources. The tone is much less negative because the reporters stick to the facts. It seems that all of your old sources inside the administration have dried up.
 

I agree, Richard, and while I'm not saying Allston is a sow's ear, it's going to be tough to anticipate the behavior of future transcaroline 18-22 yr olds, who will be living as close to the Harvard Square as to Western Ave and N. Harvard (I forget the name of the 'square'). It can presumably be done, but PG's piece is excellent on the pitfalls -- although I too doubt 'the arts' will do it. A really good student center (with cheap beer) half-way or more from the Charles to that Allston square is more likely to succeed.
 

10:57--For a more complete picture of the process that led to Drew Faust's appointment, see my piece in the spring '07 issue of 02138. My presentation in this recent profile of the process by which DGF was chosen is reflective of that, which--no offense to the Crimson, which does a fine job--was considerably more detailed than was the paper's reporting, at least at the time. If you have any actual specific disagreements, let's hear 'em. I'd happily address them.

All respect, but it sounds like you just don't like what I reported.

And Richard, you and I agree--the social element is crucial in Allston. Otherwise the students will simply gravitate to the Square.
 

look fellas:

when it comes to city planning - not university planning- ask the locals what they want and that includes the students-needs lots of retail, cafes and social activities- a museum is a complete waste of time and is just shuffling sf around the university geography. the allston residents understand this implicitly and will block anything that smells of a business park or a suburb.

look at bu, suffolk, emerson, nyu and for gods sake look at the left bank of paris -see what works there- what works is organic- movie theaters, restaraunts/pubs/cafes/bookstores/ music, hotels, places to hang were "people" not just harvard people gather and spend money. otherwise it is a gated community and all the arch/planning will fail.

if you need a book to help you along read william whyte.....
 

Looks like the three of us are in agreement, though doesn't hurt the Left Bank that it has the Musées d'Orsay, de Cluny, and three or four others. Maybe John Harvard could be moved over too, since he was moved into the Yard to attract crowds there.
 

rt:

yes, but the fogg will never be the Musées d'Orsay or de Cluny. even the mfa cant do that.

hell, let's get the boys from temple bar (the real one not that place on mass ave) to bring some civilisation to the place-real pubs, sessions, conversation - where all types of people mingle.

i think we all agree that organic and comfortable is the order. i dont think the current crop of administrators can pull it off they all come from american suburbs and dont have a cosmopolitan bone in their collective bodies. last thing anyone wants is another government center only in allston.
 

We administrative types do however use capital letters de temps en temps.

Snobbily,

SE
 

Maybe so, 6:01, but have you been down (the real) Grafton St, lately? Gap, MacDonalds, cell-phone stores. The MFA is pretty crowded these days, not just for Hopper, and there's nothing around it, so I do think a museum would help, but it would only be a small part, and you're right, it has to be organic, so will also have to happen slowly, which is the plan anyway.
 

too bad, se

broken wing at the moment and left with one hand to type...besides e.e. cummings never worried about such trivial things and neither should you. by the way, sam said nice things about you-starting to narrow down the suspects...

rt-
anyway, yes yes yes - organic-let the market dictate the activities. if i am correct, the university owns most of the real estate in the square and since it has become the landlord the place has lost all its character (and the revenue doesnt look too good either). the rental structure will be crucial to the success of the enterprise-this is wherethe university should work with the city-maintain a cogent neighborhood feel with added functions.

perhaps, and this is highly unlikely to happen, but the school should issue an rfp or rfq regarding retail/social activities for allston and keep it in context of regional offerings not just harvard. let the experts handle it...and the design school planners dont qualify.
 

Richard --

Make sure you don't miss this important op-ed on legacy admissions from the commencement Crimson:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519216
 

I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the Crimson's account of the presidential search published in the commencement issue.
 

The New York Times has a laudatory article on Summers today--says he is assembling a "virtual think tank."
 

Ah, I thought there was something incongruous about the sophomore field-hockey-player style all-lower-case internet persona coupled with the whole urban-planning schtick.

(Those hyphenation choices cannot all be correct.)

As to the kind words from Sam: do you mean THIS Sam, my valued colleague?

http://tinyurl.com/2r5u3f

Standing Eagle
 

se:

wow. it must be so cool being you-never wrong, opionated, employeed by the wgu, grammarian, man of all seasons type!

i bet you dont even look both ways before you cross the street. so, with your pocket full of kryptonite, do tell us your thoughts on the ensuing interregnum-what happens next?
 

Standing Eagle is Jimmy Olsen?
 

I think it's YOU who's opiated. :P (as the field hockey players say)

I don't look both ways most of the time, as it happens, because the street I cross most often is a one-way street.

Nanner nanner nanner,

Standing Eagle

PS. I look at the things Princeton is doing and wonder how long it can be before the c.w. about where you should aim to send your adolescent intellectual changes. That's the interregnum-issue I'm most interested in: how DOES Harvard ultimately respond with genuine pedagogical intent to the low student-satisfaction numbers that Pat O'Brien dedicated herself to artificially boosting? I firmly believe Harry Lewis should be a big part of that conversation though I think there are many curricular things he's dead wrong on.

We'll see what kind of a splash MY book makes, if I wrote one.

Babe in Coyland
 

It is so easy to get you riled up. Standing Eagle - you go girl!
 

SE:

Are you sure YOU can write a book? You've never written more than articles and chapters and people do wonder whether you can focus enough on one task to finish a book.

Know about Ritalin?
 

Well, if SE does write a book we can all be assured that the grammar will be "perfect". Can't venture more than that since SE appears to have opinions about everything but we know very little of SE'actual work.

Reminds me of an old local institution, The Ancient and Honorable Artillary Company. It is said that the company's abililities are invincible in peace invisable in war.

Love to see SE in real battle so peformance can be evaluated otherwise SE, like most of the tenured class, becomes as Galbraith warned "the vacuous leading the vulnerable".

Books are wonderful. Karl Marx wrote one-that turned out well,eh? Perhaps what the university could use is more in line with TR's speech at the Sorbonne than all of the academic snarkiness and sniping.

TTFN
 

"Very little" seems like an exaggeration. Surely even the avidest reader of this blog knows less than that?

By the way:
It's always revealing to have debate or conversation placed in the context of the history of warfare. Truly there can be no better metaphor for ANYTHING than warfare. And in this day and age it's just so TASTEful, too, to invoke killing power and the struggle for survival in order to talk about gossip debates and bureaucratic turf struggles.

The commenter seems to have forgotten that zero-sum "battlefield" assumptions are the only context in which capitalism is clearly inferior to Marxism. Why would he pick such a context unless he believes in the class struggle invented in the nineties: the very-slightly-less-educated versus the eggheads?

Anti-intellectuals of the nation, unite! And make sure that society sees itself eternally at odds with universities. It's an eternal struggle! No, really, gotta win it. These professors hate our freedom.

Explicatively,

Standing Eagle

PS. Did you guys know that the book on TR when he started out in public life was that he was way too much of an effete intellectual to win elections? True.
 

Ah, Socratic method is alive and well!
 

In the old neighborhood we just called it 'sarcasm.'
 

Jesuitical in mine.