Sic transit veritas
BEWARE OF FACULTY WITH TENURE. Many a principal hired to turn around a lackluster public school has learned that lesson the hard way -- sometimes by losing his job. Now Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers, who announced his resignation this week, has experienced it for himself.
Despite a lifetime of achievement, Summers’ big moment of fame came last year when he hazarded a “best guess” that lack of inherent aptitude might be a major factor preventing women from getting top university positions in science and engineering. Since universities shouldn’t shy from open inquiry and discussion, no topic, including gender differences in aptitude, should be beyond question. But Summers took it further, adopting an impolitic stance for which he had no real evidence. Professors couldn’t help wondering if he took that attitude into job interviews.
Summers, after apologizing repeatedly, then set about correcting that impression. He announced a $50-million program to hire more women and minorities at Harvard. What more could the faculty ask than a change of heart and the cash to back it up?
Blood, apparently. The issue never died down, to the point where it seemed more an excuse, a mask of legitimacy for simmering professorial dislike of the man and his mission.
Summers came to Harvard with a mandate to shake up an entrenched and complacent institution. He had gripes about grade inflation -- at the time, more than half the grades given were A’s -- and the undergraduate curriculum. He raised concerns about anti-Semitism on campus. He asked African American studies professor Cornel West whether producing semi-rap songs rather than engaging in more scholarly work was the best use of his talent.
Right or wrong, the questions were legitimate. But professors, especially in the humanities, resented this brusque economist trying to diminish their considerable clout, consolidate power in the university administration and question their activity without so much as the courtesy of first asking politely through their deans. Summers’ often abrasive manner didn’t help. He has long prided himself on being provocative, but he never seemed to learn that provoking people is easy. (People do it to each other on the freeways of L.A. all the time.) Provoking thoughtful and open discussion is another matter.
Summers too often acted like a rude little boy who needed to be sent to his room. Now the faculty has essentially done that. Sadly, sending him out the door may make Harvard a less open-minded, if more self-satisfied, place.
