Summers States Vision for University

Previously circumspect University President Lawrence H. Summers ended his silence Friday, laying out in the most detailed terms yet his vision for Harvard University.

In his inaugural speech, Summers confirmed points that had long been rumored to figure prominently on his agenda—undergraduate education and the development of a new campus in Allston—but also introduced new goals such as improving graduate student financial aid.

Summers took a strong line on such perennial issues as integrating the University and pushing forward with technology.

He addressed a varied audience, making some points that drew wide applause from the undergraduates seated at the back of Tercentenary Theatre, while offering others that were clearly aimed at the administrators and faculty who were his captive audience on the stage.

And in speaking about Harvard’s role as a preeminent institution of higher education, Summers’ message was clearly aimed at the wider world beyond the University.

Little of what Summers said was patently controversial, but he pushed the margins in outlining an ambitious and surely difficult to achieve agenda.

The Undergraduate

Given the attention Summers had paid to College students since he took over in July, it was not unexpected that issues of undergraduate education figured prominently in his speech.

Much of what Summers said was in line with earlier indications of where his impulses lie. Summers said interactions between faculty and students were of prime importance and said definitively that he would look to expand the size of the faculty to make this not a possibility, but a probability. Delving further into the issues of where he will hope to effect change at the College, Summers explained that among his priorities were “assuring that the academic experience is the center of the college experience.”

Summers also stressed the need to constantly revise and improve curricula.

A Mass. Hall source explained that Summers hoped to signal a significant change in laying out these plans—both with regards to specific needs and culture. Making the academic experience the center of the College experience, the source said, means extending intellectual pursuits beyond the classroom and harnessing the excitement students get out of their extracurricular activities for academic purposes.

The source said specific initiatives, such as making study abroad more accessible or providing opportunities for undergraduate students to do research, will help to reinforce academic culture. The source stressed, however, that Summers values the contributions extracurriculars make to the undergraduate experience.

But other well-placed sources indicated that while Summers does value extracurriculars, he is concerned that they might detract from the academic mission. Summers, they said, feels the academic culture should be stronger, the work tougher and extracurriculars subordinate.

Such a change to the culture of the University would likely not come without resistance. In his letter to first-years at the end of the summer, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 urged students to slow down, and in other contexts has encouraged students to take advantage of their extracurricular opportunities.

Professor of Education Richard J. Light, who has done research on undergraduate experience and has a number of strong supporters within the College, said he thought Summers was reacting to the fact that though Harvard is seen as the top college in many respects, students at other elite schools sometimes describe their academic experience as more intense.

Light said he hoped that Summers would continue to place importance on extracurriculars, since his research has shown that they play a key role in student satisfaction.

There are also those who think Harvard is hard enough as it is.

“I thought the Harvard undergraduate experience was pretty academic already,” said Carswell Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah.

Beyond these more practical considerations, Summers also had much to say about the philosophy that should drive undergraduate education.

One of Summers’ most prominent points was that some students leave Harvard without sufficient knowledge of things scientific.

The future leaders of America, he said, would never admit to having not read Shakespeare, but would find it “acceptable not to know a gene from a chromosome.”

Summers’ hope, sources said, was to bring about a change in the definition of what it means to be educated.

Allston

On the prospect of a second campus across the river in Allston, Summers finally said what he had been hinting at all along—the multi-billion dollar planning and development of this campus would occur on his watch, guided by his hand.

And Summers continued to emphasize a theme he has been quietly hinting at since late summer—namely, that planning for Allston will take place on a University-wide basis.

Comparing the opportunity for a “campus that is several times as large as this Yard” to the planning that turned a swamp into the Harvard Business School and a train yard into the Kennedy School of Government, Summers stressed the importance that Allston holds to the University.

Harvard purchased more than 100 acres in Allston during previous administrations, but Summers’ declaration that Allston is slated to be an academic campus is the most concrete explanation of Harvard’s intentions by a president yet.

A University administrator said many felt that it was important for Summers to mention Allston in the speech, despite the risk of setting off a debate about always contentious community relations (see related story, page A-1).

When Harvard’s secret purchase of the Allston land was revealed several years ago, it was a public relations nightmare for the University. As Harvard has soothed Boston and Allston’s wounds, Cambridge officials have felt increasingly neglected.

The Allston situation has Harvard faculties edgy as well, as their fiercely guarded autonomy is threatened by the central planning.

Summers has told at least one faculty that lodged an official objection to a move—Harvard Law School—that all options are still on the table.

The Mass. Hall source explained that Summers wanted to take a hard line in forcing greater cooperation and central planning.

Each of Harvard’s parts may have its own financial fiefdom, Summers said in his speech, “but all draw on the reservoir of knowledge and tradition that Harvard represents.”

Summers has stressed that all Allston planning will be routed through his office. He has also said that the full development of the Allston properties would stretch at least 30 years into the future.

But with his speech, Summers got the ball rolling.

Financial Aid

While the focus on undergraduates and the mention of Allston were expected, even some administrators admitted that they were taken by surprise by Summers’ comments on graduate student financial aid.

While any student can attend the College regardless of financial situation, Summers said the University would not rest until the same was true of the graduate schools and the whole of the University.

Multiple administration sources said it was not clear what form need-blind admissions and full need-based aid at the graduate schools would take.

But officials sketched the basis for a costly effort, replete with complicated side effects.

While any effort, they said, would include increased aid, it would also have take into account payment structures which depend on loans and loan forgiveness, as at the law school, business school and medical school.

The effort would mean massive fundraising, as well as a commitment to spend the endowment payout more liberally. One source estimated that costs could end up in the tens of millions of dollars every year.

At least with regard to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Summers’ initiative could have ramifications on how undergraduates are taught.

GSAS students pay for a large portion of their tuition and other expenses through employment, which usually means being a teaching fellow. It follows then that any increase in aid would lessen the incentive for graduate students to teach undergraduates.

Dean of GSAS Peter T. Ellison agrees that increased aid would mean fewer teaching fellows.

“One of the consequences is that teaching fellows will become a scarce resource, and faculty will be required to rethink how we teach,” Ellison said.

But Ellison pointed out that the effect may dovetail with one of Summers’ other priorities—increasing the size of the faculty. With more teachers and smaller classes, there would not be the same need for graduate students to teach.

The effect of Summers’ surprising announcement will be felt throughout higher education, observers said.

“This is huge. This will rock higher education,” one said.

When Princeton University announced that it would significantly increase financial aid several years ago, administrators at Harvard worried about trying to keep pace.

Administration sources said while Harvard’s move to improve graduate student financial aid will not set off a bidding war, its effects will be felt.

One source said another Ivy league president has expressed worry that the plan could cause budgetary anxieties.

Broader Themes

Beyond the specific hopes Summers enumerated for the first part of his administration, his speech also touched on a wide range of broader themes.

Summers said Harvard has an opportunity to awake a generation to public service. Distancing himself from a common criticism of Harvard that it saves but does not spend, Summers stressed that Harvard should be judged not by what it accumulates but by what it contributes.

And a source said that when Summers’ described the University as “forever young” he was alluding to a vision of the University in which young faculty members are prized, and old traditions are not untouchable.

On other points, Summers’ language echoed and responded to current University events. In an apparent recognition of the debate over Harvard labor, Summers mentioned appreciating not only those “who read books, [and] those who write books,” but “those who shelve books.”

While avoiding directly mentioning the Progressive Student Labor Movement’s living wage campaign, he repeatedly emphasized his openness to different viewpoints and ideas. But he also said, “All ideas are worthy of consideration here—but not all perspectives are equally valid.”

In another echo of recent headlines, he also said the University must honor those who defend freedom. In a recent visit to the Undergraduate Council, he expressed support for the Reserve Officer Training Corps, but did not directly state that he supported its reintroduction on campus.

In closing his speech, Summers noted that Harvard must take risks, and must sometimes fail. His installation heralded an era of change that according to his speech may be more dramatic than any in recent history.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.