Faculty Dismiss Proposed Mediation Committee

Professors dismissed an idea presented at today’s Faculty meeting for a three-person committee—welcomed by top administrators and presented by former Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles—to mediate between University President Lawrence H. Summers and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, criticizing it as undemocratic and prearranged.

At today’s meeting—which was attended by about 500 professors—many faculty continued their attacks on Summers’ leadership of the University, criticizing the lack of trust they say he has fostered between himself and faculty. However, supporters of Summers also spoke at today’s meeting, which lacked the tension and anger that marked last Tuesday’s discussion.

“There was a lot that was said. Some was more pleasant to hear. There was a lot that was less pleasant to hear,” Summers said. In contrast, Summers has described last week’s meeting as “searing.”

The three-person committee proposed at the meeting—which would have been composed of Knowles, Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, and Pforzheimer University Professor Sid Verba ’53—would have worked to “reshape the interactions of the President and the Faculty and to help communicate the Faculty’s concerns to the governing board,” Knowles said.

However, many of the professors who packed Lowell Lecture Hall applauded when Reid Professor of English and American Literature Philip J. Fisher called the plan undemocratic, effectively killing the proposal.

“I find myself in a meeting that has the slight feeling of an arranged outcome to it,” Fisher said. “It does not seem to me to draw on the many unheard voices in this room.”

At the start of the meeting, Kirby announced he will be convening a series of informal discussions before next month’s regularly-scheduled faculty meeting on March 15 for professors to further air their concern with Summers’ presidency. Kirby said he would provide The Crimson later tonight with more details on those meetings.

At today’s meeting, Professor of Physics and of Applied Sciences Daniel S. Fisher became the first faculty member to publicly call for Summers’ resignation.

“For the good of Harvard, Lawrence Summers must resign, or the Corporation, for the good of Harvard, must fire him,” Fisher said. “We cannot wait for irreparable harm to come to Harvard.”

Fisher’s comments were met with scattered applause, and after the meeting, Professor of Anthropology and of African and African American Studies J. Lorand Matory said in an interview with The Crimson that he also believes that Summers should resign.

Matory said that he plans to put a vote of “no confidence” on the docket for the next Faculty meeting, scheduled for March 15.

“In fact, I’ll do it right now,” he told The Crimson.

While Summers usually serves as chair of Faculty meetings, he took the unusual step of asking Kirby to chair today’s meeting.

“My desire is simply to listen,” Summers said.

—Check thecrimson.com throughout the evening for further updates on today’s meeting.

—Staff writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.