Hmmm. First Harry Lewis and Fred Abernathy write a Globe op-ed decrying the Secret Seven, a.k.a. the Harvard Corporation.

Then Corporation senior fellow Jamie Houghton resigns, and the remaining members wisely decline to make the not-much-liked Bob Rubin the senior fellow, though technically he ought to be, and hand the post to Robert Reischauer instead.

Now Harvard Mag reports that Drew Faust spoke a bit about the Corporation in a meeting with Harvard faculty...

Faust told the faculty members present that at each of its recent meetings during the fall, the Corporation had discussed how it could most effectively carry out its roles and responsibilities—a discussion she said had been led by Houghton. Faust said that he and she felt it was important for the Corporation to take a close look at how it did its work as a board and what practices would be most sensible: the sort of review that any such entity ought to make of its operations from time to time, and that the Corporation ought especially to take at the present time, in light of changes in the University itself and in the larger world. She described this set of activities as a time of reflection for the Corporation. Given that the Corporation rarely, if ever, discloses anything about itself or its work, and rarely is a subject of FAS discussion, Faust’s remarks were unusual.

Unusual indeed. But a sign of meaningful change—or just another bait-and-switch?

My guess would be that the Corporation wants to give the faculty just enough to ease the pressure on it…but without really changing.