Whispering Down the Lane at Harvard
August 2005 By Denny Hatch
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Prexy pilloried for a speech nobody read
The resignation of Conrad K. Harper--distinguished New York lawyer, past president of the City Bar Association and the only black member of the Governing Board--was yet another PR catastrophe for Harvard's beleaguered president, Lawrence Summers, who took office as Harvard's 27th president and hit the ground running.
Running off at the mouth.
But the early series of high-profile barbs, darts and spats aimed at provoking changes in an entrenched academic culture were but canapés for a faculty hell-bent for election on making a meal of Bill Clinton's former Secretary of the Treasury.
On January 14th, 2005, Summers delivered an address to a meeting of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit research organization in Cambridge, Mass. He suggested that innate biological differences were the reason why more women did not succeed in science and engineering.
The result was a huge uproar that garnered worldwide, lip-smacking media coverage.
For all of academia's gnashing of teeth, wailing in the streets, caterwauling to the press and to each other for a full month, no one had read the speech.
Summers was accused of being an insensitive, sexist lout as a result of pure hearsay.
Background
Dr. Lawrence Summers follows at least two elitist, sexist Harvard presidents--James B. Conant and Derek C. Bok.
One of the greatest pieces of legislative genius ever to pass through Congress was the GI Bill--formally known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. As a result of this inspired legislation, millions of American veterans were given the opportunity to go to college. "It enriched this nation immeasurably," wrote former Senator Paul Simon in The Chronicle of Higher Education. "We would not have our high standard of living in the United States if the GI Bill had not been enacted." Simon wrote:
"When an individual assumes certain positions of public responsibility, we require him to place his financial assets in a blind trust. We do this in order that he not profit personally from his office. When an individual assumes the presidency of a great university, we require him to place his testicles in a blind trust. We do this in order that he not rebel against the dictates of political correctness."
--Roger Kimball
"Dr. West and Mr. Summers: A Harvard Tale--Cornel West vs. Larry Summers"
National Review, January 28, 2002
The resignation of Conrad K. Harper--distinguished New York lawyer, past president of the City Bar Association and the only black member of the Governing Board--was yet another PR catastrophe for Harvard's beleaguered president, Lawrence Summers, who took office as Harvard's 27th president and hit the ground running.
Running off at the mouth.
But the early series of high-profile barbs, darts and spats aimed at provoking changes in an entrenched academic culture were but canapés for a faculty hell-bent for election on making a meal of Bill Clinton's former Secretary of the Treasury.
On January 14th, 2005, Summers delivered an address to a meeting of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit research organization in Cambridge, Mass. He suggested that innate biological differences were the reason why more women did not succeed in science and engineering.
The result was a huge uproar that garnered worldwide, lip-smacking media coverage.
For all of academia's gnashing of teeth, wailing in the streets, caterwauling to the press and to each other for a full month, no one had read the speech.
Summers was accused of being an insensitive, sexist lout as a result of pure hearsay.
Background
Dr. Lawrence Summers follows at least two elitist, sexist Harvard presidents--James B. Conant and Derek C. Bok.
One of the greatest pieces of legislative genius ever to pass through Congress was the GI Bill--formally known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. As a result of this inspired legislation, millions of American veterans were given the opportunity to go to college. "It enriched this nation immeasurably," wrote former Senator Paul Simon in The Chronicle of Higher Education. "We would not have our high standard of living in the United States if the GI Bill had not been enacted." Simon wrote:
James B. Conant, then president of Harvard University, found the proposal "distressing." He said it did not "distinguish between those who can profit most by advanced education and those who cannot." He favored a GI Bill for "a carefully selected number of returned veterans" and expressed concern that the veterans otherwise would be "flooding the facilities for advanced education."
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