Controversy continues to swirl around Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, as the school yesterday decided to release the transcript of the now-infamous speech he made on women and science last month.
According to the transcript, Summers attempted to explain why women are underrepresented in the sciences by saying, "In the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination."
"I would like nothing better," continued Summers, "than to be proved wrong, because I would like nothing better than for these problems to be addressable simply by everybody understanding what they are and working very hard to address them."
The release of these comments -- which have been criticized heavily over the past month -- comes two days after Summers was confronted by approximately 250 faculty members in a special meeting.
The Harvard Crimson -- the only media outlet allowed inside the meeting -- reported that the Harvard professors took Summers to task both on his comments on women and science as well as on his leadership in general.
"The crisis of governance and leadership here goes much deeper," Harvard professor Theda Skocpol reportedly said, adding, "We cannot easily have a new social contract when there are many indications that we never had a genuine social contract in the first place."
Skocpol declined to comment when contacted by The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The Crimson also reported that professor Lorand Matory criticized Summers for forwarding discredited theories of "biological determinism."
Next Tuesday there will be an emergency meeting of the Harvard faculty in which a vote of no confidence in Summers may be held. Summers has since apologized five separate times for his remarks.
Academic responses to Summers' comments have not been limited to Harvard, however. Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman, Stanford University President John Hennessy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Susan Hockfield recently issued a joint statement attempting to refocus the debate that resulted from Summers' comments on the future.
"The question we must ask as a society is not 'Can women excel in math, science and engineering?' -- Marie Curie exploded that myth a century ago," the three presidents said, "but 'How can we encourage more women with exceptional abilities to pursue careers in these fields?'"
Penn President Amy Gutmann --who declined any specific comment on Summers' situation at Harvard -- said only that it is important for the University to recruit more female faculty members.
"We need to make Penn a more attractive place to have an academic career in light of family obligations and the tension between work and family," she said.
Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Eduardo Glandt said that it is important for Penn to provide positive female role models in the sciences in order to recruit more female undergraduates.
"You have to bring more women into the room, even if they aren't faculty," he said. "We think that we make our own decisions, but we many times are inspired by things we see."
To this end, he says that the Engineering School has been inviting prominent women to guest-lecture at the school.
"We all know the problem, and it's frustrating that there's no single magic pill," Glandt said in reference to the overall issue of women in the sciences. "There's no quick fix. It requires constant attention."
