Perhaps I was too glib before. Because the more I look at the Task Force on Science and Technology Report, the more I think it requires careful annotation. Turns out there’s another between-the-lines implication that I missed at first glance: the further centralization of power in the hands of Larry Summers.

It works like this: the task force issued a “call for ideas” to the Harvard community, with a particular emphasis on proposals that cut across several schools and departments. (And here’s a wonderful line:) “Meritorious proposals with a scope no greater than a single existing department were referred back to the relevant school.”

What a lovely way of saying “rejected out of hand.”

So only cross-departmental or -school proposals were considered. Aside from whatever intellectual merits this may have, it also promotes the dismantling of Harvard’s every-tub-on-its-own-bottom structure and centralizes decision-making.

By making future projects cut across departments and schools, the individual department chairs and school deans become less powerful, and Larry Summers accrues more…especially since he’ll be the one doling out the real estate. Those proposals, chairs, and deans which please him will get space. Those which don’t…won’t.

Tricky, eh? Larry Summers must have learned this tactic while back at Treasury, sneaking things through Congress by burying them in pages of legislation too numerous or boring for most people to read…