Posted on 02/22/2006 9:46:31 AM PST by iPod Shuffle
Clinton man forced from Harvard helm
February 23, 2006
NEW YORK: A growing rebellion by Harvard dons has toppled Lawrence Summers as president of the oldest and most prestigious university in the US.
Facing a no-confidence vote by the faculty next week, the former Treasury secretary to Bill Clinton announced on Tuesday he would step down at the end of the academic year after five turbulent years at the helm.
The revolt was triggered by his suggestion at an economics seminar that women's "intrinsic aptitude" might explain why so few women became professors of mathematics and science. He later apologised for the remarks.
Mr Summers's resignation ends the briefest tenure of any Harvard president since 1862, when Cornelius Felton died after two years in office.
"Believing deeply that complacency is among the greatest risks facing Harvard, I have sought for the last five years to prod and challenge the university to reach for the most ambitious goals in creative ways," Mr Summers said. "As I leave the presidency, my greatest hope is that the university will build on the important elements of renewal that we have begun over the last several years."
Facing a staff revolt, the Harvard Corporation, the university's governing board, had begun canvassing key professors about Mr Summers's possible departure in an effort to avoid the damaging no-confidence vote scheduled for next Tuesday.
"While this past year has been a difficult and sometimes wrenching one in the life of the university, we look back on the past five years with appreciation for all that has been accomplished and for the charting of an ambitious forward course," the corporation said.
Mr Summers survived a staff insurrection last year despite a 218-185 no-confidence vote by professors of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in March.
This time the dissent was fuelled by a widespread unhappiness among the staff at his centralising management style.
Faculty members complained that he was blunt to the point of rudeness, recalling his high-profile clash with Cornell West, the African-American studies professor who defected to Princeton after Mr Summers criticised him for taking time out from his academic duties to record a rap CD.
Mr Summers tried to reach out to his critics by appointing task forces on women and academia and committing $US50million ($67.71million) to women's advancement at Harvard.
The dons' dissatisfaction flared up again last month when he was suspected of forcing out the popular dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the China specialist William Kirby.
The faculty, which makes up almost half of the university's professors, scheduled a new no-confidence vote that, though merely symbolic, was expected to pass by a large margin and to provoke a chorus of complaints about the Harvard chief.
Students supported Mr Summers, who endeared himself to them by signing dollar bills on which his signature was printed as Treasury secretary. A Harvard Crimson poll found that 57 per cent of undergraduates thought he should stay, while 19 per cent wanted him to go.
they ain't a fit place for truth or free speech.
Get in...get your degree...and get out!
Sort of like hearing that Stalin was overthrown for not executing enough people.
it is not unusual in the business of higher education that employment contracts for college/university presidents have them given tenure and that they are "accepted" into the faculty when they leave the post of president.
Larry might have some un-intended leverage here ...
it is not unusual in the business of higher education that employment contracts for college/university presidents have them given tenure and that they are "accepted" into the faculty when they leave the post of president.
Larry might have some un-intended leverage here ...
File this under: "A bunch of nobodies getting upset about a nobody"
He told them men and women are different??? Voila!! Now if Bin Laddie tells them the same thing, he's the next prez. of Harvard!!! WOW! BATMAN! HOLY SHITES!!!
I always thought that William and Mary was the oldest college in this country; founded before the Pilgrims landed on their rock.
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