Green's Departure Is A Loss and a Mystery

When the news came last week that, just over two years after being appointed, Provost Jerry R. Green was resigning to return to the Harvard economics department, we--along with the rest of the University--were shocked. And dismayed. And Confused.

Shocked, because there were no indications, not even the slightest hints, to regular Mass. Hall watchers, that Green wasn't enjoying his job, or that others were dissatisfied with the job he was doing. Word around the University now is that Green told President Neil L. Rudenstine in January that he wanted out. But as late as the end of last year, the Provost was rearranging the furniture in his office to make it look better.

Dismayed, because we like Jerry Green. He's a genuinely nice guy. He's quiet, modest, and above all, honest. Indeed, among administrators, Green is a rare breed--he says what he thinks. In just 21 months as Provost, the once and future economics professor has developed a reputation as the Rudenstine administration's most outspoken members, the one who isn't afraid to flout the party line.

It isn't as though Green doesn't generally support what the administration is doing--he probably does. It's just that he's candid--often more candid than his colleagues would like. Reporters, on the other hand, love him.

Last apring, for example, when Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53 alleged a link between Affirmative Action and grade inflation, Green issued a stern rebuke of the statement, even as the rest of the Harvard administration hemmed and hawed. In remarks that prompted one Harvard Law School professor to publicly call the Provost "wrong" and suggest he was speaking "the language of menace," Green suggested that free speech has its limits. "I can't tell you that if things got really out of hand, I wouldn't say, listen, what you're saying is really disruptive and I'd like you to stop," Green said at the time. "If the Ku Klux Klan were marching through Harvard Yard, I wouldn't sit idly by."

Last April, when many students and faculty members erupted in dismay over the announcement that former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell would be the Commencement speaker, Green noted that he had had another choice in mind.

And, over the summer of 1992, when the administration was locked in tense and protracted contract talks with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, Green, once again alone among senior administration officials, spoke out sharply against the union's hardball negotiation tactics, accusing them of spreading "disinformation."

The loss of Green means the loss of an unusually frank and sincere voice in Mass. Hall. WE worry that his replacement won't match that standard--especially if, as rumor has it, that replacement is the Kennedy School's slick and polished Dean Albert Carnesale, whose handlers accompany him wherever he goes.

Finally, we were more than a little confused by the announcement of Green's resignation. For one thing, the administration, in its official press release, refused to call it a resignation, referring instead to Green's decision to "assume a distinguished, new professorship." For another thing, the announcement came late in the afternoon, and neither Green nor almost any of his Mass. Hall colleagues would comment on it. Moreover, almost nobody knew that the Provost was stepping down until the news release was issued--including Maier Professor of Political Economy Benjamin M. Friedman, chair of the department to which the Provost is supposed to return.

Most curious of all is that, to this day, neither Green, nor Rudenstine, nor anyone else has said why the Provost decided to return to active scholarship. Indeed, the outgoing Provost's odd silence on the issue marks a sharp--and, we must admit--somewhat suspicious contrast to the Jerry Green we know and like.

If Green simply dislikes administrative work and prefers the academic side of Harvard life, he should say so. If Green and Rudenstine differ over how to run the University, they should just admit it--it's nothing to be ashamed of. But the longer they keep mum, and refuse to give us a legitimate reason for the Provost's departure, the more their reticence raises questions.

In a letter to The Crimson last week, Rudenstine wrote that "the entire Harvard community has benefited from [Green's] administrative ability and responsiveness, his sound management of complex problems, and the astute role he has played in planning for the coming fund-raising campaign. All of us owe him our admiration and thanks." We agree. We, too, are sorry to see the Provost go.

We'd just like to know why.