A Harvard President Who Brings His Elbows to the Table
By Kate Zernike and Pam Belluck
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 5 — It was undoubtedly the most negative publicity Harvard University's new president, Lawrence H. Summers, had received in his six months on the job. A dust-up with the professor Cornel West and complaints that Mr. Summers had snubbed or disappointed other celebrated black scholars raised the possibility that Harvard would lose the stars of its Afro-American studies department. But the dispute, resolved this week when Mr. Summers took steps to mend fences with the professors, was not the only time that Harvard's president has ruffled feathers.
In November, at a meeting with law professors, he was perceived as giving a disparaging response to a professor who objected to plans to move the law school's campus.
In September, he rankled leaders of public service organizations on campus, who complained that he was unfairly advising them to stick to charitable work and not get involved in social or political advocacy. And several professors of Latin American studies say that over the last few months, Mr. Summers has deflected requests that a Latino studies center be established on campus.
His critics say that since Mr. Summers took office in July, he has developed a reputation for excessive bluntness, lacking the quiet diplomacy they praise in his predecessor, Neil L. Rudenstine. They say Mr. Summers, who was treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, brought with him the sharp elbows for which he was known in Washington. Even though he taught economics here for nearly a decade, they speak of him as a kind of interloper, one who does not understand how universities are supposed to operate.
[Full text: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/06/education/06HARV.html]
Carl
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