Harvard faculty members do not only question President Lawrence Summers' opinions about women in math and science -- they lack confidence in his vision for their university.
Just over two months after the embattled president made controversial remarks at an economics conference, Harvard's largest faculty body voted last week 218-185 on a measure stating simply that "the Faculty lacks confidence in the leadership of Lawrence H. Summers."
It is becoming increasingly clear that the faculty's statement was a comment on his leadership style and, more importantly, his plan for Harvard's future.
When Summers assumed Harvard's presidency in 2001 after serving as secretary of the U.S. Treasury and the World Bank's head economist, he promised bold changes for the university, from increasing scientific literacy to combating grade inflation.
"I think he was asked to be president of Harvard to be a change agent," said Richard Summers, the president's brother and associate director of the psychiatry residency program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
The manner and tone in which he has attempted to implement those changes, however, reveals the root of his faculty's criticisms.
In emphasizing math and science education, for example, many say he has turned his back on other disciplines.
Other faculty members complain that Summers took too much control in deciding which professors received tenure and didn't allow others to voice their opinions.
"There is a national, increasing tension in large universities between [the] corporate needs of a complex institution and the old-style university governance, a community of scholars," Richard Summers said. "Larry's found himself in the crosshairs of that kind of conflict. The faculty at Harvard want to be in charge."
While some Harvard professors interviewed said they were dissatisfied with Summers' leadership style, they also said they disapproved of several of his policy initiatives.
There is "an old tradition at universities that faculty has a fairly strong hand in governance," said Judith Ryan, a professor of literature and German at Harvard who voted for the no-confidence measure. "We feel that the whole [university] has become more and more cumbersome, more layers of administration."
And now, Summers' provocative remarks at a Jan. 14 economics conference have acted as a catalyst for a slew of faculty criticism and media attention.
"In the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of [women's] intrinsic aptitude," Summers said, according to a transcript from the conference.
But the remarks were just the tip of the iceberg. Harvard faculty members were able to seize upon the opportunity to criticize their president.
Only the Harvard Corporation -- the university's governing board -- can demand that Summers resign, however, and there has not been much official talk of that to date.
"We did want to send a message to the [Harvard] Corporation about our unhappiness about the way things seemed to be going," Ryan said.
