After months of controversy about Harvard President Lawrence Summers' comments on women in science, Harvard's largest group of faculty members no longer have confidence in their president.
Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted by secret ballot yesterday that they lack confidence in Summers' leadership. The no-confidence motion was supported by 218 professors, while 185 voted against it while 18 others abstained.
"I believe [last night's] vote by the faculty ... suggests that his leadership is no longer legitimate," said Harvard professor J. Lorand Matory, who submitted the motion. "Resignation would be an honorable option."
The no-confidence vote is a formal expression of discontent and cannot force Summers to step down. Only Harvard's governing board -- the Harvard Corporation -- can require the president to resign.
Controversy has followed Summers since his Jan. 14 remarks at an economics conference, when he said that "innate" biological differences between genders may prevent more women from being successful in science and math.
"He feels comfortable voicing poorly thought-out, poorly reasoned and evidence-poor opinions," Matory said. Summers "has been a real bully on campus."
Faculty members also voted on a second motion which expressed "regret" for his Jan. 14 comments and some "aspects of his managerial approach."
That motion passed 253 to 137, with 18 abstentions.
Summers avoided a vote of confidence in February, when faculty members held an emergency meeting to discuss his presidency.
"A significant majority had been afraid to express their lack of confidence in them," Matory said. "They had feared retaliation."
Matory brought the motion as a response to Summers' leadership.
"I feel that President Summers has been hostile to freedom of inquiry on campus," Matory said. "He has ruled through fear and intimidation."
The beleaguered president was greeted by a few dozen protesters after leaving yesterday's meeting.
"I have done my best these last two months to hear all that has been said, to think hard, to learn and to adjust," Summers told reporters. "I am committed to doing all I can to restore the sense of trust that is critical to our work together."
Yesterday's vote came as a shock to much of the Harvard community.
"People have been pretty surprised," said Harvard junior Matt Glazer. "It's added to a frenzied sense on campus about this issue."
Regardless of the ultimate result of yesterday's vote, Glazer said the controversy will affect Harvard undergraduates.
"President Summers' view towards certain disciplines certainly has an effect on student life here at Harvard," said Glazer, who is the president of Harvard's Undergraduate Council. "Everyone in the Harvard community has something at stake here."
