Summers Neglected CID, Says Ex-Chief

The director of Harvard’s Center for International Development, Mark R. Rosenzweig, has resigned his post, citing a lack of support from University President Lawrence H. Summers.

The center, which Summers considered shutting down a year ago, will run out of money in two years without an infusion of cash from the University, imperiling hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for faculty research and student programs in developing nations.

Rosenzweig—who left to join a better-funded program on economic growth at Yale—wrote in an e-mail that Summers “has not indicated while I was around any interest in CID’s vision or accomplishments.” Though Summers has declared research on international development a top priority of his administration, Rosenzweig said the president never spoke with him before or after naming him director of the center in August 2004.

“Some think that President Summers wants to (perhaps sub-consciously) organize the study of development around himself, and that is why little or no resources are provided to CID,” Rosenzweig wrote.

The center, one of 15 policy-oriented institutes based at the Kennedy School of Government, coordinates interdisciplinary research among its nearly 90 faculty associates.

Among the $200,000 that the center shelled out to students last year, it provided grants for 11 undergraduates to teach English and other subjects in Latin America and Africa. It also funded an array of student organizations, including the development-focused magazine Bhumi, which is edited by undergrads.

But with just $2 million in funds remaining and annual expenditures of roughly $800,000, the center’s days are clearly numbered. “We’ve got just two years left,” said the center’s executive director, Aimee Pease Fox ’96.

The dean of the Kennedy School, David T. Ellwood ’75, said that he met with Summers over lunch at the Faculty Club two weeks ago to discuss plans to guarantee the center’s financial security.

“The president and I strongly believe that the long-term solution is to endow the center,” Ellwood said. “And President Summers continues to be helpful in my efforts to raise that endowment.”

Summers’ spokesman, John Longbrake, said the president “has continued to provide support for the center.”

In his Commencement address in June, Summers spoke at length about Harvard’s commitment to global research, mentioning five such programs already in existence at Harvard, including the Design School’s “innovative design responses in the wake of the tsunami disaster.” But he made no mention of CID.

Summers considered scrapping the center altogether after economist Kenneth S. Rogoff, the Cabot professor of public policy, stepped down as director last spring after one year on the job. But Rosenzweig was ultimately named as a replacement, and the center’s future appeared momentarily secure.

A Kennedy School affiliate involved with the center’s oversight, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Summers has antagonized some of the center’s faculty associates. “I think it’s a blessing and a curse that Larry considers himself a development expert,” the Kennedy School source said. “He doesn’t seem willing to let go of this, delegate it to someone else. Nor does he seem able to devote the necessary time and effort to the center.”

But Rogoff wrote in an e-mail that “there isn’t any question that President Summers is deeply committed to supporting teaching and research in international development.”

The seven-year-old center enjoyed a high profile under its founding director, Jeffrey D. Sachs ’76, who joined with U2 singer Bono to promote debt relief and advised U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on poverty reduction.

But the center’s leadership has been in flux since Sachs left for Columbia University in 2002, taking a large share of the center’s grants along with him.

A faculty committee chaired by economist Dani Rodrik ’79 steered the center for two years, and many expected Rodrik to be named director.

The Kennedy School source said that Rodrik was passed over due to political differences between him and Summers.

Rodrik has expressed deep skepticism about many of the policies that Summers, in his own career at the World Bank and the Treasury Department, promoted tirelessly. For example, in an article posted last month on the liberal website TomPaine.com, Rodrik wrote that the North American Free Trade Agreement—which Summers has vocally supported—and the United States’ 1995 peso bailout—which Summers orchestrated—did not improve real wages in Mexico.

But a faculty associate of the center, economist Jeffrey A. Frankel, wrote in an e-mail: “I do not know of any particular political differences between President Summers and CID faculty associates, and do not believe that they would have played any role in the relationship between Summers and CID.”

Rosenzweig said that despite his move to Yale, he and Rodrik will still co-teach a fall semester course at the Kennedy School, Political and Economic Development 101. Rodrik, who holds the Hariri chair of international political economy at the Kennedy School, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Ellwood said that he is “saddened” by Rosenzweig’s departure. The dean added that he is “actively seeking a new center director,” and expects to announce a replacement for Rosenzweig soon. University officials did not acknowledge Rosenzweig’s resignation until asked about it by Crimson reporters this week.

Rosenzweig said that the center made strides during his brief tenure as director, specifically citing the fact that researchers at the center won $2 million in federal grants to study indoor air pollution in low-income nations.

“The faculty talent and willingness to collaborate across disciplines are there, but there is little support provided by the Harvard administration,” Rosenzweig said.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.