Goodbye Pug, Hello Bob

This past weekend, the Harvard Corporation waved goodbye to its youngest member, Herbert S. “Pug” Winokur ’64-’65, of Enron notoriety. Two days later, in confirming the appointment of former Secretary of the Treasury Robert E. Rubin ’60, they scored a long-awaited and much-needed public relations win.

Some think picking Rubin to replace outgoing Senior Fellow Robert G. Stone Jr. ’45 is a savvy move. After all, Rubin’s protégé is the man in Mass. Hall—University President Lawrence H. Summers. Their tight relationship is famous in Washington circles: they have known and worked with each other for a quarter of a century. Rubin is credited with softening Summers’ rough edges and grooming him to ascend the government ladder—Summers was his deputy and successor at Treasury. Last year, when the University was hunting for a visionary genius to lead Harvard into the 21st century, Rubin promised the search committee that Summers was it, and that the prodigy’s legendary aggression had been tempered by time and experience in the Clinton administration. Rubin’s word helped seal the deal.

Now, post-Cornel West debacle, Summers’ already-cracked diplomatic reputation is back in the proverbial dust. Who better to resurrect him than his mentor of old? By all means, bring Bob to Cambridge. Three cheers for Mr. Fix-It. If he can fix Summers’ PR problems, we should promote him from the Harvard Corporation to University King.

But keep in mind that his Corporation membership too should prompt questions. One wonders whom else they considered for the slot: it seems like settling on Rubin was all too easy. Did they even discuss anyone else? Thanks to the traditionally zipped lips, I have no idea; but I suspect not. They’d been trying to get him since he left Treasury in 1997, according to comments he made in The Crimson. He’d played hard-to-get earlier, but now, with the bait of working with Summers again on the end of their fishing line, the Corporation couldn’t lose. If Rubin meant what he said when he told them to pick his friend, it was time for him to put his money where his mouth was. But are we really better off now that Rubin has finally been added to the helm?

The answer depends on who fills that last slot—the unexpected vacancy left by Winokur, whose departure, frankly, is long overdue. (Now, when is Doris Kearns Goodwin going to follow his more dignified example?) Rubin chairs the executive committee at Citigroup. He continues the alarming business-appointee trend of recent years, and at least to the eye of the sometime Mass. Hall observer, he doesn’t exactly expand the Corporation’s repertoire. The University’s highest governing body, already considered basically irrelevant by the average student, is once again in danger of becoming a one-note melody.

Where have all the scholars gone? In its heyday, the Corporation boasted an impressive array of nationally recognized academics. Now, the roster of bigwigs has whittled its academic number down to one (other than Summers): the mighty Hanna H. Gray, a historian and former president of the University of Chicago. She is also the only woman on the body of seven, and she can’t be far from retirement. The Corporation needs to bolster its academic ranks, and fast. With Winokur’s departure, it has the opportunity.

To whom should the slot go? How to round out a list that includes Gray, the two ex-Secretaries of the Treasury (Summers, as president, is on the Corporation ex officio), lawyer Conrad K. Harper (the only black member), new Senior Fellow James R. Houghton ’58 (also presumably not far from retirement), and Treasurer D. Ronald Daniel (who formerly ran McKinsey and Co.). “We’ll probably be looking at what void there is on the Corporation, whether we need a scientist or an academician,” Stone said in The Crimson. Well, it’s about time.

Harold Varmus, the head of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Hospital, would be a terrific pick to fit those criteria. If Summers plans to turn Cambridge-Allston into BioMed Valley, he needs more scientific expertise to back him up and iron out the details. Varmus, who did graduate work in English at Harvard, has the benefit of a broad academic background and solid reputation—in fact, his name was bantered about not so long ago for the job Summers currently holds. All the business savvy of Daniel, Harper, Houghton, Rubin and Summers doesn’t matter unless they have scholars with a broad base of experience to work with (and no, doing economics, economics and economics isn’t what I mean).

Vasugi V. Ganeshananthan ’02 is an English concentrator in Lowell House. Her column appears on alternate Wednesdays.