Following the news that Drew Faust has appointed a committee to investigate whether Harvard cops are racist, the Globe ups the ante today with a piece headlined, “At Harvard, blacks perceive blatant culture of prejudice.”

Interviews with black students and faculty reflect a perceived climate of underlying racial insensitivity on campus that goes beyond the police. The students recounted incidents when they said white students made them feel as though they do not belong. Their sentiments echoed those of W.E.B. Du Bois, the university’s first black PhD, who famously said, “I was in Harvard, but not of it.”

As she has done in the past, Drew Faust continues to disappear whenever the subject is not one she wants to be associated with.

Faust could not be reached for comment on the racial climate at Harvard.

I guess it’s smart, but it’s cynical too, and not exactly leadership. Kind of like announcing the formation of this committee a day before Labor Day weekend. If Larry Summers had done the same thing, what would we have said?