Outside FAS, Support Was Strong for Summers

Lawrence H. Summers continued to enjoy strong support at Harvard’s professional schools throughout the tumult of the past three weeks, according to administrators and professors outside the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

And several graduate school professors said they did not understand the source of anti-Summers sentiment among FAS.

The acting dean of the Business School, Jay O. Light, said in a statement yesterday that Summers’ resignation marked a “sad moment in Harvard’s history.”

“He’s been a good friend of the Kennedy School,” said Dean David T. Ellwood ’75, who shared an office with Summers when both men were graduate students in economics.

Ellwood praised Summers for “trying to make it one University by breaking down the barriers” between Harvard’s various schools.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy ’54-’56 said in a statement that he is “particularly grateful for the attention [Summers] paid to the Institute of Politics and the Kennedy School of Government as a living memorial to my brother.”

North of the Yard, Law School Dean Elena Kagan said in a statement that Summers supported her school “in every way possible.”

And one of the most prominent professors at the Law School, Alan M. Dershowitz, expressed outrage over Summers’ ouster.

“I think this is an academic coup d’etat engineered by the hard left and stimulated by Summers’ politically-incorrect statements, but then joined by an assortment of others—including some who had been dismissed and disempowered by Summers, some who didn’t like his style, and a few well-intentioned people who didn’t understand the damage they were doing to the University,” Dershowitz said yesterday.

Across the river at the Business School, Roth Professor of Retailing Rajiv Lal sounded a confused note.

“We don’t fully understand what precipitated” Summers’ resignation, Lal said.

His colleague, Ziegler Professor of Business Administration Stephen P. Bradley, said that the resignation “sets a bad precedent that the Faculty [of Arts and Sciences] overturned the president.”

“The FAS acted unilaterally and the nine professional schools were eliminated from any active discussion,” Bradley said.

David R. Gergen, a professor of public service at the Kennedy School who has advised four U.S. presidents and counseled Summers during last winter’s women-in-science storm, said, “I never understood all the grievances that FAS had.”

Gergen added that he was heartened by the fact that undergraduates in a Crimson poll last weekend overwhelmingly said they thought Summers should not resign.

“It was encouraging that the students rallied to Larry’s side because that showed they really appreciated both his energy and his vision of renewal,” Gergen said.

ONE MORE SPRING OF SUMMERS

Summers will continue to work with the professional schools until he officially steps down on June 30, and graduate school administrators said that they were hopeful about the months to come.

“I think Larry can use the next four months to focus on the two or three things that he thinks are significant and can move forward,” Ellwood, the Kennedy School dean, said.

Medical School Dean Joseph B. Martin said that he anticipated collaborating with Summers on the University’s several science initiatives.

“President Summers’ insight into the future of science was integral to launching a University-wide science planning process that is on-going,” Martin said in a statement yesterday. “I look forward to continuing to work with Larry over the next few months on this critical process.”

A BOK ENCORE

Members of the graduate school community also embraced the soon-to-be interim president, Derek C. Bok, who is one of their own.

Bok, who was president from 1971 to 1991, was the first Harvard chief not to have an undergraduate degree from the College since Charles Chauncy led the young University from 1654 to 1672.

Bok earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1954 and served as that school’s dean from 1968 to 1971.

“Derek will be excellent because he knows how to run the place,” said the former dean of the Kennedy School, Joseph S. Nye. “He’s a very moderate, judicious man so he will keep the options open for the new president.”

Nye’s successor, Ellwood, agreed that Bok will make a particularly good interim president.

“He was very effective as a leader and clearly has no desire to be a long-term person,” Ellwood said. Bok will be 76 years old when he takes hold of Harvard’s helm.

Beyond Harvard Yard’s gates—not just in the University’s graduate schools, but also in New Haven—well-wishers lamented Summers’ resignation.

“President Summers is a man of great intelligence and vision,” Yale President Richard Levin said through a spokeswoman. “I’m sorry for him, and I’m sorry for Harvard.”

—Javier C. Hernandez and Madeline W. Lissner contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Claire M. Guehenno can be reached at guehenno@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Laurence H. M. Holland can be reached at lholland@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Kathleen Pond can be reached at kpond@fas.harvard.edu.