A poster below suggests that, in its piece on Larry Summers’ severance package, the Crimson was implicitly criticizing me for something I wrote in Boston Magazine—I quoted an anonymous source saying that Larry Summers’ severance was going to be “breathtaking.”

Here’s what the Crimson said:

(Sorry, the Crimson’s site appears to be down. Maybe later.)

Here’s what the M-Bomb wrote in the Globe today (bold mine):

The former Harvard University president, Lawrence H. Summers, received a severance package that could be worth up to $2 million or more, including a $1 million home loan, according to the university’s annual Internal Revenue Service filing.

…His severance package includes a year’s sabbatical, which presumably would be paid at his presidential salary; “less than one year’s salary” in future pay supplements; and the home loan, according to the filing. Summers was also appointed as a university professor at Harvard, the highest rank.

And just for the record, here’s what I wrote about Summers’ severance deal in 02138 back in September 2006:

Summers would stay until July, after which he would receive a seven-figure severance package, take a year’s sabbatical, and return to Harvard as a University Professor…. The value of Summers’ severance is said to be in the area of $2 million, which includes continued presidential salary, travel and entertainment expenses, rent for an apartment Summers keeps in Washington, and a small loan towards the purchase of a house.

Yup, yup, yup and yup.

Incidentally, I also reported something that both the Crimson and the Globe ignored….

Finally, [Summers] extracted a promise that his speech at Commencement would be mailed to all Harvard alumni….

Some of you will remember receiving from Harvard in the mail a small pamphlet of Larry Summers’ collected works, sent by Jack Reardon of HAA, a month or so after I wrote those words.

I did make one mistake: the loan Summers received, $1 million with no payments until 2010 and then interest-only payments until 2014, is clearly not small. A well-invested one million dollars could easily double between 2006 and 2014, so this is a pretty substantial payoff—it is, conservatively, a million-dollar gift.

(If you’re interested, I had been told that the loan was substantial, but couldn’t confirm that through real estate records in time for publication; there was on file, however, paperwork showing that Summers had received what is apparently a different loan in the amount of, I believe, $40,000.)

If one were a stickler about such things, one could say that both newspapers should have given 02138 credit for breaking details of Summers’ severance.

In any case…is the amount breathtaking?

Well, maybe I’m old-fashioned, but it is to me. Who wouldn’t love to get fired from a job—especially at a non-profit—because of failure to perform it well and get a payoff worth, conservatively, $2 million?

The lions of the Christian right-Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson-no longer dominate Republican politics as they once did. Their grip is slackening as their older followers are slowly replaced…
—Thomas Edsall, The New Republic, current issue

Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Founder, Dies at 73

—The New York Times, today

In all the excitement today, what with curricular reform and Larry Summers’ severance package going public, let us not forget about the importance of Adam Goldenberg’s report that Jeremy Bloxham turned down the FAS deanship, and not just because Bloxham was my pick.

Let us assume the story is true; Goldenberg certainly believes it is.

Okay, folks. So why did he say no? And if it’s not Bloxham, then who? And when? It’s getting a little late in the game….

Harvard’s faculty voted on and passed a new curriculum yesterday, thus demonstrating that the faculty is not wholly ungovernable and counterproductive. So how come nobody sounds very excited about it?

English prof Jim Engell calls it “an imperfect document.” Harry Lewis says that “we have simply missed the opportunity to do the right thing.” Bill Kirby, always good for a China joke, said, ““The motion was passed unanimously although many comrades were opposed.”

I haven’t thought as much about this as the people involved, but it still seems to me that there’s no intellectual theory to this reform other than saying, well, people should take courses in a few important areas, and also it’d be swell if they connected to the real world.

The first strikes me as obvious, the second mundane. Is this really all we can expect from the world’s finest university?

Adam Goldenberg’s blog, Gadfly, reports that Jeremy Bloxham has turned down the deanship of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences….

According to a source close to the administration, Bloxham, who is currently FAS’ Divisional Dean for the Physical Sciences, turned down the job this morning.

I have no independent confirmation of this stuff, but if it’s true, it’s pretty interesting. Your thoughts?

The Boston Herald runs an Associated Press piece on Drew Faust and “the delicate balance of inspiration, ego-boosting and cocktail-party cajoling it takes to get Harvard’s 11 colleges and institutes and its 24,000 employees on the same page.”

Faust apparently cooperated with the piece, which is odd, because she has turned down requests from Harvard Magazine and 02138, two outlets with Harvard constituencies, but now speaks to a wire service reporter.

“You have to [lead] in somewhat indirect ways because you have to bring everyone along with you,” Faust said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, contemplating the “peculiar nature” of colleges.

“That challenge of movement and collaboration and to keep those things together is, I think, at the heart of every university presidency.“

There’s not much news in the piece other than the revelation that Faust “plans to start a major program to improve theater and visual arts on campus.”

In fact, it doesn’t sound like the reporter got a lot of time with Faust; Steve Hyman is quoted more than she is. One wonders if that is reflective of anything.

Deputy attorney general Paul J. McNulty has resigned. When will Alberto Gonzales do the right thing and follow suit?

Joe Lieberman continues his shameful behavior: He has endorsed Maine Republican senator Nancy Collins for reelection, and now he’s going to co-host a fundraiser for her.

Lieberman wants things both ways: He wants the power of being a member of the Senate majority party, but he also wants to stick it to the Dems for not supporting him in his 2006 reelection campaign after he lost the primary to Ned Lamont…..

Lieberman has no convictions other than his devoted commitment to his own self-interest.

In The New Republic, Alan Dershowitz explains his “feud” with Norman Finkelstein.

Suddenly I’m the Nazi? And a masturbating one to boot! I’m not shy about entering arguments, but I can’t help feeling like I walked into a trap. How could I not argue against Finkelstein? But, when I raise my voice, I know that I’m supplying essential ammunition. I guess when you’ve got no scholarship to make your tenure case, you need all the outside interference you can get.

With two such contentious people, one is tempted to wish a pox on both their houses, but such an abdication of judgment is probably unfair to Dershowitz. He actually sounds pretty reasonable here.

At Harvard, Drew Faust names an ally interim dean of the Radcliffe Institute. Perhaps the most significant thing about the pick is that it removes Barbara Grosz from consideration in the FAS dean sweepstakes…though I don’t think she was every that serious a candidate. The former Radcliffe Institute dean picks another Radcliffe Institute dean to be her FAS dean? (Got that?)

That would create a perception of favoritism and weakness…..