Sunny Reception on Rainy Day for Summers' Farewell

University President Lawrence H. Summers received a lengthy and rousing ovation at his final Commencement address Thursday, and declared that when he leaves office in less than a month he will do so with a sad but “full heart.”

The 27th president focused on Harvard’s next steps as a university that can set the standard for institutions of higher education around the world.

“I have loved my work here, and I am sad to leave it. There was much more I wanted, felt inspired, to do,” Summers said at yesterday’s afternoon exercises for Commencement.

“Yes, I have these last years been a man in a hurry,” Summers said, attributing his urgency to a desire to prevent complacency at Harvard.

“Harvard must—we must—cross over: cross over from old disciplines to new; cross over from old structures of governance to new...cross over from the confines of Harvard Square and put down new ambitious stakes in Allston and beyond,” he said.

The afternoon exercises, which included speeches by Summers and journalist Jim C. Lehrer, were moved from Tercentenary Theatre to Sanders Theatre due to the rain. The limited seating capacity forced many undergraduates and their families to watch from Annenberg Hall, the Science Center, or the Information Center in the Holyoke Center.

From the start of his speech, Summers acknowledged the controversy that marked his tenure.

“Some of us have had our disagreements, but I know that which unites us transcends that which divides us,” Summers began.

The former Treasury secretary said that the University stands at an “inflection point.”

“If Harvard can find the courage to change itself, it can change the world,” he said.

One of Summers’ major points regarded the decrease in social mobility and the importance of Harvard’s role in expanding opportunities for lower- and middle-class students.

Noting the College’s recent financial aid initiative—which, under Summers’ leadership, has eliminated the parental contribution for families with incomes below $60,000 per year—Summers said that financial aid has become a “University-wide” initiative.

Summers also elaborated on the University’s commitment to genomics research. “Draw a circle with a five-mile radius from this point and you encompass the greatest concentration of biomedical talent in the world,” he said.

Summers may have garnered the greatest reaction from the audience when he referenced the University’s advancements in stem cell research. Harvard’s Stem Cell Institute was founded under Summers’ watch.

Calling the federal ban against stem cell research “misguided,” Summers said that Harvard needed to make even more investments in this area.

Summers also emphasized the ongoing curricular review at the College, urging the Faculty to embrace new norms of teaching and learning and to provide closer faculty-student interaction.

“I look forward to the day when Harvard is not just the greatest research university in the world, but is also recognized for providing the best undergraduate experience in the world,” Summers said while being interrupted by yet another burst of applause from the audience.

“I am honored to have served as your president during the early days of what I hope­—and believe—will be Harvard’s greatest epoch,” he said.

After the ceremony, many alumni and graduates lauded the vision Summers laid out in the speech.

“I thought he laid out a fantastic plan for the University,” said William W. Lambert ’06. “I am sorry to see that he will not be able to carry through with this plan.”

Others commended Summers’ candor.

“I thought that it was good because he didn’t minimize the fact that he had turmoil during his tenure and that he didn’t accomplish everything that he had wanted to,” said Alice Masson Edwards ’56.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Following Summers, reputed broadcast journalist Jim C. Lehrer mounted the podium as “the single freshest Harvard graduate” after having received an honorary degree from the University earlier in the day.

Lehrer responded to Summers’ appeals to the University by saying, “On behalf of my new class, we accept your challenge and will make it happen.”

Lehrer opened his speech by telling the graduates that they will not remember who their Commencement speaker was nor what he said in fifty years’ time.

Nonetheless, Lehrer delved into the overarching message of his speech—the importance of national service in any form.

Lehrer entered the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He said that he did not have a choice when he joined the military­—young men either joined on their own or were drafted.

But in retrospect, Lehrer said those three years were “a life-changing experience.” In the military, he finally took his first plane ride and travelled outside the United States. Those experiences changed how he treated other people and viewed the rest of the world, he said.

But in today’s world, Lehrer says it is uncommon to have the kind of shared experiences that unite people.

“I have never seen us more disconnected from each other than we are right now,” he said.

“How do we connect ourselves and then stay connected to the other Americans who do serve in the military and elsewhere without having to sustain a tremendous man-made or natural disaster?” he asked.

Lehrer proposed the creation of national public service corps.

Lehrer did not lay out a specific proposal for instituting universal service—”I’m a journalist, not a proposalist,” he said—but instead asked broad questions he hoped would frame a discussion on the topic.

“I know some will argue that such a program will cost too much, and I will ask ‘compared to what?’” Lehrer said.

Alice Temple Hyslop ’56 said that Lehrer’s speech spoke to her on a personal level. “His words were great echoes of my husband who served in World War II,” she said.

RAINED IN

Because the rain forced the exercises from Tercentenary to Sanders Theatre, seating for the event was limited. Seats in Sanders Theatre were reserved first for members of the governing boards, faculty, and honorary degree recipients.

After waiting in a line that stretched beyond Memorial Hall, alumni from the 50th and 25th Reunions were the next groups to be offered seats.

But in the end, John P. Reardon Jr. ’60, executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association, said that they did not turn anyone down who had “stuck in there.”

Joe Wrinn, director of the University’s press office, said he has not seen Commencement held indoors since he came to Harvard in 1980.

“Four years ago at Commencement it rained,” said Reardon. “About 100 people showed up and that was pretty depressing. After that, I concluded that if it looked like tough weather, we would move inside.”

—Staff writer Madeline W. Lissner can be reached at mlissner@fas.harvard.edu.