Meanwhile, at Harvard…
Posted on June 1st, 2006 in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
…there’s lots to talk about.
First, I should mention that my piece on the last days of Larry Summers is out in Boston Magazine; you can read it online here. The idea behind the story was to present a behind-the-scenes look at what really happened during the two-week period from the contentious faculty meeting of February 7th and Summers’ resignation on February 21st. It’s not particularly a pro- or anti-Summers piece, just an investigation into a series of events that the University would never disclose. I hoped that consideration of these events would shed new light on the various theories being bandied about on the causes of Summers’ resignation. One conclusion: the argument made by some that Summers’ ouster was the result of a small band of rebels at the College is completely wrong…. If you read the piece, you’ll see that the president’s attempts to garner support from the professional schoolsâand he did make themâ were almost entirely unsuccessful.
(As always, I invite Alan Dershowitz to comment, although the professor, so happy to comment in forums in which the deck is stacked in his favor, has never taken me up on the offer.)
It’s not an accident, by the way, that the piece is out just in time for Commencement…my editors and I didn’t think that the Globe was going to do this story, so we had some time to work on it without worry of being scooped, and we all felt that the subject would be of particular interest this coming week.
Second, I gather that Jeremy Knowles has returned as dean. It is fascinating that Larry Summers, who was so obsessed with youth that he prompted serious discussion of age-discrimination lawsuits, has ceded power to a 76-year-old and a 71-year-old, and it does make one consider again the difference between “brilliance” and wisdom.
Third, Harry Lewis’ book, Excellence Without A Soul, has gotten terrific reviews in the Wall Street Journal (subscriber-only) and the Boston Globe.
(Incidentally, Amazon.com must be getting pretty good with its algorithms. A search for Excellence without a Soul not only turns up that book, but also Harvard Rules and Our Underachieving Colleges, by Derek Bok.)
Am I forgetting something? As always, I’m sure you will let me know….
9 Responses
6/1/2024 10:48 am
Meanwhile, the loss of top-notch people from Harvard College continues. The Director of International Programs, Jane Edwards, is leaving for Yale. With the university on hold, and dysfunctional leadership in the College, the best people will bail out…..
6/1/2024 10:56 am
It probably makes sense for Jane Edwards to depart, unfortunately. With the recent creation of a senior vice provost for international affairs position, her office is likely to be marginalized, in the usual way that things play out between central administration and FAS these days.
6/1/2024 12:26 pm
Summers dusted off and reused his “anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent” line to criticize some British academics yesterday…Justified?
6/1/2024 1:31 pm
Nice article in Boston mag, Rich.
The reluctance of profs to be quoted by name testifies to their assessment of the vindictiveness of Summers and his allies quite forcefully.
6/1/2024 1:36 pm
Thanks for the comment. It’s my preference to get more folks on the record, but your characterization of their concerns is accurate. People worried that a lame-duck president on his way out the door wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate against the makers of remarks critical of him.
6/1/2024 3:33 pm
Poster # 2 reflects what will doubtless be the spin on Jane Edwards departure (variation on “wanted to spend more time with my family”). The Vice Provost’s office will hardly be dealing with all the hands-on issues with Harvard College students involved in study abroad. The real reason of course is the same reaon associated with departures of other excellent administrators in Harvard College, namely its dean and deputy dean.
6/1/2024 3:42 pm
Sounds like a fatuous argument to be making, Rich. Suggesting that
people who ousted a sitting president are afraid of institutional retribution: you are clearly giving your sources the benefit of the doubt. It is easy and cowardly to make sniping remarks and spread rumors with the protection of anonymity. It is more likely that the majority of your unsourced rumor mongers are protecting their reputations and are afraid of being marked as a gossip. If you believe that they are concerned for one moment about their resources, I think I have given you too much credit in the past.
Said the anonymous poster
6/2/2024 9:12 am
A fatuous argument? I don’t think so. What the people who requested anonymity were primarily afraid of was that, since Summers was remaining in office through the end of this month, he might not hesitate to exact revenge against his critics. There were some specific examples provided to me which suggested that this was a legitimate concern.
Now, it’s certainly possible that there were other motives for requesting anonymity, and there were also a couple of people who had been active in Summers’ ouster who now wanted to fade into the woodwork again and wouldn’t talk at all. But the concern over the potential reprisals of an embittered president felt real.
6/2/2024 4:21 pm
I think the odds of Summers’ critics coming forward after his departure are directly proportional to the odds he’ll actually return to Harvard: nobody’s going to burn their bridges until they see Larry blowing the bridge from the other side. In the meantime, the backstabbing and “back bench bomb throwing” will continue, from the Lake Houses of New Hampshire, to the rarified air of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.