Summers Seeks Women and Scientists for Provost

Despite little public evidence that University President Lawrence H. Summer has started looking for a new provost, behind the scenes the search is underway.

While Summers was initially considering candidates from outside of Harvard—Kathleen Sullivan, the dean of Stanford’s law school among them—the focus is now reportedly on those already at the University.

According to administration officials, Summers is asking deans for their reaction to certain candidates and making decisions about what characteristics he should most seek.

And although Summers has yet to ask particular individuals if they want to be considered for the post, he has resolved to have a provost in place by October, one official says.

Searching the Field

Summers’ first instinct has been to find either a woman or a scientist to fill the post, the official says, but his thinking is still developing. He is looking at both experienced administrators and those with less formal experience—“diamonds in the rough.”

That Summers should hope to pursue either a scientist or a woman to be the chief academic in his central administration is in line with appointments at several top-tier universities, most notably at Princeton University.

Many faculty members interviewed identify science as an area tightly entwined with the fate of the University.

Faculty mentioned Butler Professor of Environmental Studies Michael B. McElroy as one scientist who could be considered. McElroy was reported to be a candidate for the University Presidency ten years ago.

Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Co-Director of the Center for Genomics Research Stuart L. Schreiber is another scientist who some consider as having bright prospects for advancement.

Faculty also noted that given the paucity of women at the top of higher education, Summers would be well-served to seriously consider appointing a female provost.

Faculty members identify Law School Professor Martha L. Minow, Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics Susan J. Pharr and Pusey Professor of Neurobiology Carla J. Shatz as among the most prominent possibilities.

But several professors express the worry that any appointment from those ranks would further deplete the stock of top women faculty.

Regardless of the academic field or gender of the candidates, according to the administrator close to the provost search Summers has displayed an interest in choosing a candidate who may not have held administrative posts but has hidden talents. Though faculty members have difficulty in singling out such professors, one name some mention is Mallinckrodt Professor of History of Science and Physics Peter Galison.

But some think that Summers might just choose a more established administrator—one who can hit the ground running and assist the still-inexperienced president.

While they say that none of the major deans make sense—some too old, some too involved, some too conten—faculty and administrators thought that the next provost could well come from the ranks of department chairs, program directors and academic deans. In addition, administrators and faculty say Associate Provost Dennis F. Thompson would make a good candidate. Despite being a contender in former President Neil L. Rudenstine’s search for his first provost, he now says he has no interest in the post.

The Provost’s Task

Long time faculty and former provosts agree that picking someone with the right personal chemistry is one of the most important tasks facing Summers in this search.

Former provost Harvey V. Fineberg ’67 describes how at the end of the day, Rudenstine would often stop by to chat informally, outside of their myriad formal meetings.

But beyond picking the right person—a skill for which the former Treasury Secretary is well known—Summers also has the luxury of being able to define the provost’s role as he sees fit.

While at other schools the provost role is fairly well defined and static, this is not the case at Harvard.

Until Rudenstine arrived there had been no provost at Harvard for over 40 years. At other, far more centralized universities, the provost position had developed into a chief operating officer with budgetary control over the faculties—a “Mr. Inside” to the outwardly focused presidents.

Given Harvard’s decentralized structure—deans control their own budgets, do their own planning and jealously guard their empires—the role of the provost at the University was unclear when Rudenstine first raised the idea of resurrecting the post.

But there was a sense that no president could go it alone any more.

“The consensus was that Harvard was too big of a place for the President to be able to do everything himself,” says Joel C. Monell, dean of administration at the graduate school of education.

Observers say Rudenstine created the provost position with his experience at Princeton in mind. Rudenstine had been provost to then-Princeton President William Bowen and he played the type of inwardly focused role that more unified Princeton allowed.

“The difference is that there is a natural number-two person at Harvard—the dean of FAS,” says Dale W. Jorgenson, Abbe professor of economics. “It took a little while for the provost to be defined in this context,” he says.

Efforts to define the role of the provost were further frustrated by the circumstances surrounding each provost’s appointment.

The first provost Jerry R. Green was appointed by a still “wet behind the ears” Rudenstine. Green lasted only three years as provost.

After Green’s resignation a harried Rudenstine, right at the start of an all-consuming capital campaign, rushed to make an appointment, choosing Al Carnesale in 1994. Only a few months into office, Carnesale was thrust into the position of acting president when Rudenstine took a leave of absence.

As Carnesale was acting president and provost at the same time, faculty members say the division of labor was further confused.

“The question had been, ‘What would you throw the provost into?’ It eventually became, ‘What would you hold him out of,’” Carnesale says.

But Carnesale also left abruptly, when he was offered the job of Chancellor of the University of California Los Angeles.

For the last four years Fineberg has held the job of provost and brought a sense of stability to the position in the eyes of many observers. Those who dealt with him credit him for his quiet diplomacy and say that he solidified a few areas as the provost’s sole territory.

From its reestablishment in 1991, the provost’s central purpose has been to coordinate interfaculty relation. As provost, Fineberg oversaw the maturation and creation of several “interfaculty initiatives” and continued to encourage further integration of the University’s parts.

Fineberg also oversaw the central information technology office, as well as studies on the use of Harvard’s name and other intellectual property issues.

During the Radcliffe merger, Fineberg functioned as a top deputy of the president, but at the same time shared the stage with Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

Reinventing the Job

But with the first opportunity to modify Rudenstine’s conception of the provost position, observers say Summers has an unprecedented opportunity.

“Rudenstine was always just thinking, ‘who is the next person I can get,’” Jorgenson says.

Yet this may also be Summers’ last opportunity to significantly modify the role of the provost’s role.

“The only time Summers can make these changes though would be at the beginning of his presidency,” Carnesale says.

Faculty say Summers’ challenge in defining the role of the next provost is deciding which of the big issues—the expansion in Allston, undergraduate education, science—he wants the provost to be involved in, deciding how that involvement will work and equipping the provost with the resources commensurate with the task.

For many long time observers, the development of University land in Allston is the type of issue ideally suited for the provost’s involvement. Plans are to develop the land for academic use, with the ultimate goal, administrators have said, of moving some of the faculties across the river to free up space. The work will take coordination between the various deans and faculties, some of which are reluctant to move.

“It’s going to take strong central leadership,” Jorgenson says. “Moving the Cambridge part of Harvard into the surrounding territories generates the same type of tension as [University] integration has. These are coordination issues—it’s a great opportunity to develop a role for the provost in working out the internal details, while leaving the external, political matters to the president,” he says.

At the same time though, delegation of the Allston coordination to the provost would be an increase in responsibility.

“There would be a certain amount of resistance to that, that would be a big step,” Monell says. “I would guess that [Summers] wouldn’t put a provost into the middle of that.”

‘Thankless Task’

Even with the opportunity for expansion of the provost’s role, Summers might have hard luck trying to convince faculty members to serve.

A number of senior faculty members said that the position is unattractive, regardless of how Summers defines it. They cited their already heavy workloads of research and teaching and frustration with administration as reasons they would not not want to serve as a provost.

Other professors added that the position might not be attractive enough to lure those already in powerful posts away from their current positions.

“It’s a thankless task,” says Mason Professor of Music Christoph J. Wolff.

—Staff Writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.