Shots in the Dark

You guys should check out BU Today—it’s a really clean, well-designed site unlike anything that Harvard has. And it doesn’t shove the promotional element down your throat quite so much as—sorry—you folks do.

It even has a link to a page featuring campus blogs….such as “A Yankee Fan Living in Boston.”

In the Globe, Marcella Bombardieri profiles Robert Brown, the new president of Boston University.

Brown is following in the wake of the high-profile and highly controversial John Silber, Bombardieri points out.

See if this sounds familiar…

Brown, many observers say, is trying to be the un-Silber, transforming the university’s culture so that faculty, students, and alumni feel that their opinions are heard and they have a stake in the university’s future. Former president John Silber took BU to new heights of success, but was accused of sowing fear among faculty and ignoring concerns of students and alumni.

Not all professors are yet convinced, but here’s one idea that a certain other university across the river might want to consider.

Under Brown, BU created a blog inviting feedback on the university’s goals….

So far, I have heard of only two Harvard professors who write blogs. By contrast, when BU Today asked members of the BU community to submit nominations for best campus blogs, they got 150 nominations. What does this say about the popular willingness to speak freely at Harvard?

I feel about this the way that the Crimson feels about poor attendance at faculty meetings: There’s just no excuse.

So here are some questions I’d like to hear Drew Faust’s responses to:

1) As a historian, you depend on free and unfettered access to historical documents in order to pursue your scholarship. Do you support the Corporation’s 50-year-rule, which keeps secret the records of the Corporation for 50 years after they are created?

2) Do you support the ouster of students from Massachusetts Hall?

3) Do you believe that blogs are an important part of creating a forum for intellectual discussion and debate at Harvard? Do you read any blogs, and if so, which ones? Would you create a blog similar to the one Robert Brown has created at Boston University? And what measures would you recommend to your incoming FAS dean to encourage Harvard faculty to write blogs of their own?

As a writer, words matter to me, and I spend an inordinate amount of time making sure I’m using the right ones.….

—Dashka Slater, in the first sentence of her Salon story, “It’s all fun and games.”

Murawai Beach, New Zealand (photo by Richard Thomas)

His son can’t stand him…his second wife hates his guts…and now, out of the blue, his third wife reveals that she was, contrary to public perception, actually married twice before, rather than once.

Whoops!

Here’s a question: Can a Republican presidential candidate succeed when his personal life is a farce?

I find it incredibly sad that Elizabeth Edwards will have to continue her struggle against cancer; for some reason it’s affected me even more than such hard news usually would.

Maybe it’s the way the Times describes the cancer as “incurable but treatable.”

Maybe it’s because breast cancer has struck two members of my own family, and the mother of a close friend is fighting it even now.

And maybe part of it is that the Edwards family has always struck me as particularly decent and warm and loving. They just seem like nice people, and I can’t help but feel for them.

This is a family that has already endured tragedy. Let us hope they don’t have to again.

The Edwardses, by the way, are the 2nd family in this presidential race in which one spouse has a very serious illness; Ann Romney has MS, and how campaigning could affect her health is a real question for the Romneys.

If there is any silver lining here, it is that perhaps these circumstances will bring some added attention to these illnesses, and maybe even introduce elements of humanity and humility into this presidential campaign…..

President-elect Drew Faust has persuaded Harvard’s v-p for government, etc., Alan Stone, to stick around for another year, even though Stone had previously tendered his resignation.

“It was a very plausible decision at the time, but on reconsideration I was delighted to stay,” Stone said. “You make decisions based on your latest information.”

I think you can chalk this up as a wise move on Faust’s part.

In my experience, Stone has not impressed; in my dealings with him, he’s been—how can I put it?—shadowy.

On the other hand, a number of people whose opinion I respect say that Stone is really talented and a huge asset to the university. They tell me that he really does excellent work with community relations and that he’s a savvy adviser to the university’s higher councils.

So with that in mind, I think you have to consider this a third consecutive smart personnel move by Drew Faust. The consensus opinion seems to be: Good move to keep Steve Hyman, good move to let Donella Rapier go, and Alan Stone is important to keep on to help with the transition, if not beyond.

Which indicates something interesting about Faust, I think: She doesn’t feel an inherent need to “shake up” the university, which was one of Summers’ mandates from the Corporation. She’s making her decisions on a case-by-case basis. Smart. There’s still no sign of her doing anything bold, but perhaps when the appropriate time comes, we’ll see that.

And it’s also possible that boldness is overrated….methodical, steady progress could be just what Harvard needs right now.

Zach Seward’s piece about Larry Summers’ speech at Tufts, in which he reported Summers criticizing the curricular review, now has this appendage:

Clarification: The March 15 news analysis “With Book on Horizon, Summers Sharpens His Critiques of Harvard and its Faculty” did not completely represent the former University president’s views on the undergraduate curricular review. He also said in an interview after the speech, “Much of it reflects things that were my focus during my presidency,” and praised half a dozen initiatives, including faculty-student contact, the empirical reasoning requirement, the attention to pedagogy, secondary concentrations, and the emphasis on actual knowledge rather than ways of knowing.

Hmmmm. I wonder what former university president called up Seward and reamed him out?

I love that line, “Much of [the curricular review] reflects things that were my focus during the presidency,” which rather conveniently ignores what a disaster the review was during Summers’ presidency, and how it only began to cohere once he was gone.

There is much to discuss regarding Larry Summers’ recent speech at Tufts on the subject of higher education, which may be the basis for a Summers book on the same topic.

I keep thinking, though, about one line in that speech, as reported by Crimsonite Zach Seward.

Pedagogy was a key theme of Summers’ speech last night. He said that while other universities constantly attempt to poach accomplished researchers from Harvard, “I can’t recall a single case when an effort was made to raid Harvard for a candidate who was an outstanding teacher.”

Summers’ general point (I think): Harvard professors aren’t outstanding teachers. To be fair, it could also be that universities don’t hire away other universities’ profs based on their teaching skills. But in the context of the news story, it sounds like Summers is saying the former.

In any case, the suggestion that Harvard profs stink at teaching is a bold claim. And while it may be broadly true—I just don’t know—there is one dramatic exception: Cornel West.

You will remember West, who was summoned to Mass Hall by Summers in the fall of 2001 and asked to justify his political views, his spoken-word recordings, and more.

West was one of Harvard’s most dynamic and popular teachers. But, as Summers pointed out, West hadn’t written a deeply scholarly book in several years. (His recent books were more popular.)

For Princeton, that wasn’t an issue. Upon hearing that West was deeply unsettled from the encounter, Princeton, which prioritizes undergraduate teaching, successfully lured him away from Harvard. Why? Because West is an inspiring presence on campus and a great teacher. (Whose CUE Guide ratings, by the way, were higher than Summers’ were when he was first a Harvard professor.)

Now, I can understand why Summers would omit this glaring example, and maybe West is the exception that proves the rule.

But if Summers is really going to write a book on these issues, he needs to confront some of these contradictions. Sometimes great teachers are not great scholars—it is very rare to find someone who is both, there is only so much time in the day—and sometimes great teachers are unusual personalities.

Perhaps it is even time for Summers to admit that he was wrong about Cornel West.

Regular readers of this blog will remember a recent discussion over Professor Wisse’s commentary involving her Brazilian housekeeper; Wisse explained to the woman that she was wrong to believe that Drew Faust’s appointment was a good thing.

Now the Boston Globe has done a piece about a Brazilian woman who is trying to make the housecleaning business more equitable.

Coincidence? Or…was this woman inspired by Drew Faust’s example?