Harvard University President Lawrence Summers is facing a vote of no-confidence from the school's faculty -- and it's not his first major confrontation with Harvard's professors since he took office in 2001.
The motion was triggered by the resignation of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean William Kirby and has drawn responses from Penn faculty ranging from support for Summers' removal to a belief that the matter should be resolved internally.
The vote, scheduled for Feb. 28, is largely symbolic and cannot force Summers to resign.
Harvard German and comparative literature professor Judith Ryan, who introduced the no-confidence resolution at a faculty meeting last week, said she wanted to publicly criticize Summers' vision for the university.
She said that it was leaked that Summers forced Kirby to sign an early resignation.
"It's not just [Summers'] leadership," Ryan said. "It's where he's leading us. We are just unhappy with what seems like his inability to work well with others and galvanize the faculty."
Ryan cited Kirby's resignation -- one of several exits made by Harvard deans since Summers took office in 2001 -- as "more than just the unusual shaping of the cabinet which happens in a new regime."
Summers spokesman John Longbrake said that Summers has been listening to faculty concerns.
"President Summers is ... committed to working constructively with them," Longbrake said.
This latest no-confidence resolution comes less than a year after Harvard faculty passed a vote of no-confidence last March.
That motion -- passed by a vote of 218 to 185 -- followed a speech in which Summers said that women's "intrinsic aptitude" could explain the low number of female academics in the sciences.
Summers has apologized repeatedly for the statement and has been working with faculty to support and promote women in science.
Ryan said that this latest resolution is not related to Summers' statements last year.
"These issues of women in science [are] not what this is about; ... it is a widespread dissatisfaction in the way Summers is leading the university," Ryan said.
She added that some of the issues raised in the current resolution were raised in last year's as well.
However, some Harvard faculty members think that the resolution reflects a political agenda against Summers.
Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield said that "radicals" from the Harvard faculty are responsible for the upcoming vote.
"They are trying to take over Harvard and turn it to their purposes ... to increase the number of people like themselves in the faculty and change the curriculum," he said.
Ryan said that it is difficult to gauge how many faculty members will vote in favor of the resolution next week.
Harvard's student newspaper, The Crimson, has called the points against Summers cited as the basis for the resolution "underwhelming."
While several Penn faculty members spoke out against Summers' comments on women in science last March, this time most say the resolution is an internal matter for Harvard faculty.
"Everybody knows that he is known for a very brash style," Materials Science and Engineering professor Mahadevan Khantha said. "People also regard him as brilliant."
Penn Linguistics professor Lila Gleitman said that she thinks Summers should step down, however.
He "does not seem to be the spokesman that is most useful to providing leadership in a great American co-educational institution of higher learning," she said.
Penn President Amy Gutmann declined to comment about the motion.
