Simmons Resigns in Protest

More than a month after stepping down as head of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in protest of a Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ financial policy, government professor Beth A. Simmons said that top FAS deans have not formally acknowledged her resignation.

Simmons’ decision, which she announced in separate letters to FAS Dean Michael D. Smith and her colleagues on April 10, came after a long back-and-forth with administrators over a recent policy that requires regional centers to give large portions of their own excess funds to FAS.

Administrators instituted the so-called “taxation” policy in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis, which severely reduced the University’s endowment and the FAS budget—half of which is funded by that endowment.

Although originally implemented to temper FAS’ budget constraints, the policy was not dissolved when the FAS balanced its budget on schedule last summer. Simmons said that the Weatherhead Center has been asked to contribute more than $800,000 a year to FAS since the policy was put into place. Though the Center was happy to make that contribution on a temporary basis in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, Simmons said that the decision to make the policy permanent puts the center on dangerous footing.

“If the current policy continues, the Center’s reserves will dwindle so substantially as to compromise its ability to organize a serious program of research in international affairs for the hundreds of student associates and faculty affiliates across the University that have depended upon WCFIA for support,” Simmons wrote in an email to The Crimson.

But top FAS administrators did not acknowledge these reasons when they announced Simmons’ departure.In a letter to faculty members affiliated with the Center sent late last week, Dean of the Social Sciences Peter V. Marsden wrote that Simmons had decided to step down to pursue teaching and research.

In a statement to The Crimson last week, Smith commended Simmons’ leadership, but did not comment on the financial policy that she was protesting.

“Professor Simmons has led the Weatherhead Center with great distinction through very difficult financial times, overseeing an intellectually exciting program of scholarship and dialogue for Harvard faculty and students, as well as visiting scholars,” he wrote. “She is currently concluding her five-year term as director, which expires at the end of this academic year, and I wish to thank her for her significant dedication and service.”

Weatherhead affiliates familiar with the details of the resignation lamented the situation, saying that the departure of Simmons—who has led the center for two three-year terms—is a significant loss.

“Her resignation is a serious blow, since Beth is widely recognized as one of the top specialists on international affairs in the world today, in the prime of her intellectual career, and a fine, steady institutional leader,” government professor Robert D. Putnam said. “Losing her intellectual leadership in this way ought to be of concern to the University.”

A member of the Weatherhead executive committee, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said that the FAS policy points to a larger shift in the way FAS administrators view international centers.

"She did all in her power to protect the interests of the Center and she tried to further invigorate international studies at Harvard, but encountered an administration determined to ‘tax’ the center to such an extent that it endangered its core activities,” the executive committee member said, adding that “effective” communication between the faculty and the administration has become difficult. “An atmosphere of distrust has poisoned relations between the Dean and the faculty at the WCFIA.”

Simmons has continued to perform many of the director’s duties since resigning in April and will continue with her teaching and research duties full-time in the fall. Marsden wrote in his email to Weatherhead affiliates that administrators will accept nominations for Simmons’ replacement through May 24.

—Staff Writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @npfandos.