The Commie and the University Pres

In the realm of political defeats, last month’s no-confidence vote in University President Lawrence H. Summers probably ranks somewhere below the Bolivian government’s execution of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in 1967.

But after three months of battle with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Summers has risen to Guevara’s height of pop-culture martyrdom with a new t-shirt modeled after the famous image of the Argentinian guerilla leader.

“The only similarity is that they’re both revolutionaries,” said Aaron J. Mowery ’08, who began selling the Summers tees last week. “Granted, Che was a communist,” noted Mowery, a member of the Harvard Republican Club, “and we don’t think Summers is a communist at all.”

The shirt’s website, www.vivasummers.com, encourages patrons to wear their confidence in Summers, who was presented with his very own tee at a study break in Lowell House last week. Mowery said 68 supporters of the president, including Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53, had purchased the shirt as of Tuesday afternoon.