The President's Priorities There's been a lot going on in the 02138 zip code lately, including a basketball recruiting controversy and a debate over segregated gym hours for Muslim women.

But President Drew Faust has been an absent figure during these campus controversies. I joked the other day that she was on her book tour, which was, in retrospect, overly snarky of me. But where has she been?

Testifying before Congress on the importance of funding scientific research.

Young scientists' careers are being stifled by flat funding for biomedical research, Harvard's president told a US Senate committee this morning.

The problem may be real, but the report on which Faust's testimony is based, Broken Pipeline, is a joke; it's a glossy brochure, more photos than text, based on the anecdotal stories of 12 junior researchers, produced in conjunction with the "integrated health system" Partners Healthcare. It looks like a corporate annual report, only with less information.

I don't mean to deny the validity or import of the problem. But I do think that the fact that the president of Harvard is testifying before Congress, waving corporate brochures as evidence, even as she stays mum about issues happening at Harvard College says something about the evolving role of the university president.

(I don't think even Larry Summers testified before Congress while president of Harvard.)

What are her priorities? Scientific research. Why? Because that's where the big bucks are.

Except that then she has to push for more money for scientific research, because, well, that's where the big bucks are. And around and around we go.

This prioritization might not make such a big difference in terms of the College if Faust had appointed strong FAS and College deans.

I don't know a lot about Michael Smith and Evelynn Hammonds. But the posters on this blog (and to be fair, it's a self-selected group) do not see them that way.....
  ¶ 10:07 AM