In Harvard Rules, I wrote that “it was inevitable that Harry Lewis and Larry Summers would clash. In some ways, both men were surprisingly similar—opinionated, stubborn, strong leaders. But their similarities only highlighted their points of contention.”

I am reminded of that now, reading today’s Crimson, with its description of Summers’ farewell to the faculty and Lewis’ reading of Excellence Without a Soul at the Coop.

As Anton Troianovski reports, Summers said, “There is only one important question on which history will judge us. Did we do all we could to blaze new paths for higher education and change the world through our teaching and research? Or did we continue to do traditional things in traditional ways, enjoying the greater comfort that increased resources provide?”

Harry Lewis, who of course was forced out as dean of the college by Bill Kirby/Larry Summers, has a different take.

According to Yin Wang, Lewis said, “We’re not doing much to help students identify purpose in their lives…and to help them become the mature and responsible people on which society will depend.” On the subject of leadership from the top, Lewis added that “changing direction requires…leadership that views the university idealistically, as something more than a business and something more than a slave to the logic of economic competition.”

The differences are interesting. Summers spoke of changing the world; Lewis talked of students and their obligation to society. It’s a subtle distinction, but I think that Summers tends to focus on the individual and Lewis contextualizes the individual within a community. Summers’ remarks are suggestive of individual glory; Lewis is slightly more modest in his goals.

And Lewis is clearly more critical of the rush to merge the university with the worlds of Washington and international business than is Summers.

Nonetheless, the quotes above are mere snapshots of the two men’s views, which are more nuanced than those snapshots suggest. And what is interesting is how there is real overlap between these two opponents. Both believe in the importance of Harvard to the world, and both are seriously concerned about the direction in which the university is headed. Both are concerned about how undergraduates are taught, and what they are taught.

I can’t help but think that Summers made an enormous mistake in ousting Lewis—one of his largest mistakes. Between the two of them, they could have generated truly provocative conversation about the changes that are coming/need to be made at Harvard.

At the time, though, Larry Summers wasn’t particularly interested in starting a conversation; his style was more that of the monologuist. A shame. If they could have lived with each other, Larry Summers and Harry Lewis might have done some interesting things at Harvard.

Nonetheless, the conversation they are starting now—even if they are not in the same room at the time—is one the next president and deans of the College and FAS should continue.