Via Reuters: Summers to quit as Harvard president:
Two people familiar with the situation told the newspaper that the former U.S. Treasury secretary was expected to announce his resignation in advance of a second faculty vote on a motion of no confidence in his leadership on February 28.Summers, whose abrupt style has won praise and contempt since he became president in 2024, sparked controversy last year when he said innate differences between men and women may help explain why so few women work in the academic sciences.
I really can’t say if this is a good thing or a bad thing for Harvard (I will say that I thought the whole “women in science” business was overblown). I will confess to a certain soft spot in my faculty-biased heart at the notion of that the facultry at Harvard having the ultimate say over the direction of the school and of the top slot of the university.
Andrew Seal points to the official word on the subject.
“I really can’t say if this is a good thing or a bad thing for Harvard (I will say that I thought the whole “women in science” business was overblown).”
Summers’ resignation has nothing to do with his remarks on women–he withstood that. It is all about using university funds to defend a faculty member and close friend of Summers who was accused of defrauding the US government of millions. The faculty member in question–Andrei Shleifer–wound up settling the case with the feds for $26.5 million. The Chronicle is reporting the whole affair cost the university $44 million. Shleifer was never repremanded–actually he was promoted.
Sumemrs’ leaving is all about poor managment and squandering of the University’s resources. The woman thing is just something bored and clueless pundits seek to prop up as part of the non-existent “culture wars” ideology.
Comment by kappiy — Tuesday, February 21, 2024 @ 4:49 pm
Summers was a middle-of-the-road Democrat in Washington, therefore by definition he was a right wing nut on the Harvard Campus. This says more about Harvard than Summers.
Prediction: The next president will have never had a job since high school outside of Academia.
Comment by Buckland — Tuesday, February 21, 2024 @ 10:24 pm
Actually, university presidents are usually not pure academics, as their job isn’t a purely acdemic one.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, February 22, 2024 @ 9:27 am