At Harvard, the Bigger Concern of the Faculty Is the President's Management Style 1-26-2005

At Harvard, the Bigger Concern of the Faculty Is the President's Management Style
By SARA RIMER

Published: January 26, 2005

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 25 - Among Harvard's faculty, the underlying conversation right now is not about gender differences and the ability of women to succeed in math and science. It is about Lawrence H. Summers's ability to succeed as president of the university.

The uproar over Mr. Summers's remarks suggesting that innate gender differences might explain the lack of women in math and science careers comes against the backdrop of distress over his management style, which has been building since he took over three and a half years ago.
Advertisement

A dozen Harvard professors, as well as other educators associated with the university, said in interviews that for all his intellectual vigor and vision, Mr. Summers, a former Harvard economics professor, has created a reservoir of ill will with what they say is a pattern of humiliating faculty members in meetings, shutting down debate and dominating discussions. This ill will, they say, has helped fuel the fury on campus over what Mr. Summers initially said were meant to be provocative, off-the-record remarks at an academic conference here on Jan. 14.

"Larry is stimulating to argue with one on one and would be admirably controversial as a colleague," said Daniel S. Fisher, a Harvard professor of physics and applied physics, who has observed Mr. Summers in many meetings. "But with Larry as president, the rules are clear. For the president, it is fine to be provocative, but for faculty, serious questions and constructive dissent are squelched."

The support of the faculty is particularly important now, as Mr. Summers pushes ahead with his ambitious plans to expand the campus across the Charles River, revise the undergraduate curriculum, make Harvard pre-eminent in big science and bring more low-income students to the university. The many admirers of Mr. Summers say his brash style makes him just the person to lead Harvard into the future.

Steven Pinker, a star psychology professor who left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for Harvard a year ago, called Mr. Summers a "refreshing" change from the "bland diplomats" that he said college presidents tend to be today.

"He does speak his mind," said Professor Pinker, whose work Mr. Summers is known to admire and which provided much of the foundation for the recent remarks about women. "He subscribes to the idea that ideas should be discussed. He enjoys stating his position forcefully. He enjoys a forceful rejoinder. He doesn't believe people should wilt under the pressure of a good argument."

But his critics say Mr. Summers puts his ego before the university and its academic values.

"He just dominates faculty meetings," said Mary C. Waters, the chairwoman of the sociology department, "There's no dialogue. You speak and then Larry responds."

Most professors who were interviewed refused to be identified, saying they were afraid of retribution from Mr. Summers. Those who did speak on the record took pains to mute their public criticism.

Mr. Summers spent much of last week apologizing for his remarks about women and science and declaring his intention to recruit more women as professors.

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Summers said his propensity to debate and challenge "sometimes leaves people thinking I'm resistant to their ideas when I am really trying to engage with their ideas." Asked if he thought he needed to adjust his style, he said, "I've learned from this experience."

Whatever anger and resentment he has stirred among the faculty, Mr. Summers appears to have the strong support of the Harvard Corporation's seven-member board, which includes him and his former mentor Robert E. Rubin, a former Treasury secretary.

"I think he is an outstanding president and he has a chance to be one of Harvard's greatest presidents," Mr. Rubin said. He added that he was unaware of widespread faculty discontent with the management style of Mr. Summers.

Mr. Summers, who was Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, was only a few months into the job when he got into a fight with Cornel West, a star of the Afro-American Studies department, over his scholarship, which resulted in Professor West's highly publicized departure for Princeton. ("Good morning, Mr. President, who have you insulted today?" Mr. Clinton said to Mr. Summers in a telephone conference call after the West incident.)

Several months later, invited to speak at a conference on globalization sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Mr. Summers stunned many professors with his brusque dismissal of their views on the subject, saying those who voiced concern about the possible downside of globalization were naïve. At an early meeting with some 80 law school professors, Mr. Summers dismissed as stupid the reasoning behind a junior faculty member's suggestion about which departments might benefit by moving across the Charles River, to Allston, Mass., though he later apologized. Some professors who were present felt that Mr. Summers was dismissing the faculty member along with her suggestion. Professor Fisher and others cite many recent examples in which Mr. Summers has dismissed their views or questions, or put down their colleagues. Professor Waters said she and many other women on the faculty left a meeting with Mr. Summers in October feeling he had not understood their concerns over the sharp decline in the recruiting of tenured female faculty members. But Melissa Franklin, a physics professor who had spoken out at the meeting, said she felt encouraged afterward when Mr. Summers telephoned her to say he wanted to explore her concerns.
Advertisement

Mr. Summers's reputation had preceded him to Harvard, and was even the subject of discussion on the presidential search committee. "When Larry was being considered for president, his provocative manner and insensitivity to others was the major criticism raised by skeptics," said Howard Gardner, a professor of cognition at the Harvard education school and an expert on leadership.

Supporters like Mr. Rubin "gave assurances that he'd gotten an education in Washington, that his rough edges had been smoothed," Professor Gardner said. "On the basis of what I have observed and heard from colleagues, I now believe, regrettably, that the supporters were expressing a hope rather than a reality."

Professor Gardner made a point of saying that in many ways he still considers Mr. Summers "an impressive leader," adding, "but I fear that his inability to anticipate the effects of his informal remarks - both in terms of content and in terms of style - could cripple his effectiveness."

His critics say that Mr. Summers brings a hierarchical management style that is especially ill-suited to Harvard, a decentralized institution where much of the power resides with the deans of the university's 10 separate schools and where many faculty members have their own large egos as well as lifetime appointments. A president, they say, needs diplomatic skills to persuade the faculty to support his initiatives and work out compromises.

"For me it's sad that Harvard isn't able to benefit from all the upside potential of Summers as a leader because he doesn't know what kind of organization he's operating in," said Theda Skocpol, a professor of government. "And he's often self-centered and discourages people around him." Professor Skocpol observed that Mr. Summers's advantages as a leader include his incisiveness and ability to "identify a problem and throw out challenges."

Mr. Summers has made no secret that he intends to shake up Harvard and that intimidation may sometimes be required. In a mostly admiring article in the British newspaper The Guardian in October, he is quoted as saying, "You know, sometimes fear does the work of reason."

Told that many faculty members had described him as a bully who squelches debate, Mr. Summers said the criticism was unjustified. "I've not, since I've been here, resisted a meeting or a discussion with any faculty member on the university," he said. "I've never suppressed anyone's views."

Told that many faculty members said he had created an atmosphere of intimidation, he said: "I'm really sorry if that's true. It's certainly not my intent."

Even his critics say Mr. Summers is highly accessible. He might insult someone in a meeting, they say, and then telephone afterward to apologize and solicit their views. The problem, his critics say, is that his confrontational style and tendency to criticize the ideas of faculty members in front of their colleagues requires an equally combative response. And, as president, he has the upper hand in the battle.

"If you come back at him and hold your own, you come out all right," said Everett Mendelsohn, who has been a Harvard professor of the history of science for 40 years. "I've done it on a number of occasions." But Professor Mendelsohn added that many of his colleagues, while no shrinking violets, nevertheless feel afraid to speak up.

Professor Waters says she is not afraid of Mr. Summers. But she said she stopped going to meetings of the faculty advisory committee for the search for the dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences because she felt Mr. Summers was ignoring the faculty's views.

Sam Dillon contributed reporting for this article.