Summers Pushes HSPH Allston Move

University President Lawrence H. Summers attended a special meeting with the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) yesterday, where he stated the case for moving a portion of HSPH to Harvard’s future Allston campus.

Summers was invited to attend the faculty meeting last month by the HSPH’s faculty council, which sent a letter to Summers expressing concern about his comments on women in science and his vision for the future of HSPH. University Spokesman John Longbrake declined to comment on what was said at the meeting yesterday.

But according to two faculty members who attended the closed-door meeting, Summers and University Provost Steven E. Hyman spoke about the possibility of a two-campus HSPH and the options for growth if it moves,

Some HSPH faculty members have opposed moving the campus to Allston, saying that it will strain collaborative research programs with Harvard Medical School (HMS), located next door to the HSPH’s current location in Longwood.

Professor of International Health Jennifer Leaning ’68 said that in spite of the divisive topic, the presentation yesterday was mindful of the faculty’s concerns.

“They were very thoughtful,” said Leaning, who is also the chair of the faculty council, after the meeting. “Clearly they have been thinking about these issues and prepared for this meeting in particular.”

Leaning said Summers and Hyman told faculty that they were aware of the difficulties of the move and are committed to maintaining the “contiguity” of the school by building transportation and communication systems between the two campuses.

“It’s a move that I think is inevitable, but it will create some major strains in the programs that are strongly embedded in the medical area,” said Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition Walter C. Willett. “But [Summers] did say clearly that he recognized that we needed to have a two-campus solution.”

Willett said that this direct announcement of the University’s aims should alleviate concerns among faculty at HSPH.

But Willett also said that morale has been low at HSPH in recent months.

“The women in science comments, the perception of limited prospects for growth...and the lack of clarity about the role of the School of Public Health within the University, and whether there was a strong role for the school within the University at all, sent morale through the floor,” Willett said.

“But there was certainly a strong sense that the president was trying to be positive and supportive and going out of his way in ways that had not happened before,” he added.

Promotion and tenure were some of the other major discussion topics at yesterday’s meeting. In the face of tightened finances at the school, some HSPH faculty are complaining that getting tenure has become more difficult, Willett said.

HSPH receives 75 percent of its funding in the form of “soft-money,” or grants for sponsored research, which makes it difficult for the school to commit to expensive long-term tenure contracts.

Willett said that Hyman discussed the possibility of tenuring public health professors through other schools at the University, thereby relieving HSPH of the full financial burden of tenure.

“Other schools around the country are looking into this and coming up with other kinds of tenure where there isn’t a life-long financial commitment,” Willett said.

Leaning said the meeting was civil and disciplined, in contrast to Summers’ more contentious recent meetings with the Faculty of Arts and Science.

According to HSPH Director of Communications Robin C. Herman, over 130 faculty attended yesterday’s meeting, almost three times the number that usually attends.

At the end of the of meeting, Summers promised to attend at least one HSPH faculty meeting a year.

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.