Summers Meets With Overseers For First Time

In University President Lawrence H. Summers’ first meeting with Harvard’s second-highest governing board, discussion centered on issues of undergraduate education.

Though members of the Board of Overseers said Summers was only there to listen, and conversation focused on the abstract far more than any particulars, the two-hour meeting on Saturday touched on a number of issues that are starting to form a theme for Summers’ entrance onto the University stage.

Prior to this meeting, the Overseers had only met Summers once—when they confirmed his nomination as Harvard’s president last March.

This weekend, the Overseers directed the discussion, with Summers speaking little.

But Overseer Walter B. Hewlett ’66 said that many in attendance were interested in a subject Summers has already emphasized: the College.

“Larry is very much interested in the quality of the undergraduate experience and education, and many of the Overseers picked up on this with their comments,” Hewlett said.

Hewlett said that though most of the discussion was general in terms, the issue of study abroad was one that several Overseers were interested in.

In a variety of settings this fall, Summers has stressed the fact that too few students take the opportunity to study away from Harvard.

Hewlett said that Overseers discussed the importance of making it easier for students to get credit for their overseas study, but understood that it was a complicated issue.

Beyond study abroad, Overseers spoke on the need for increased student-faculty interaction.

And more generally, they articulated Harvard’s need for continued change.

New Overseer Paul A. Buttenwieser ’60 observed that the discussions had a distinctly optimistic tone.

“Everybody feels that Harvard is wonderful, but there was a general feeling about not wanting to be complacent,” Buttenwieser said.

Few other specific issues arose in the course of discussion. Harvard’s campus across the river in Allston was only referenced in one Overseer’s joke, and the space crunch in Cambridge was only addressed vaguely, in one question asked by Overseers, “Have we enough space for the students?”

Summers met with Overseers for two hours within the cozy confines of Loeb House. More than 20 Overseers crowded the room as Summers leaned in listening.

After the meeting broke up, Overseers boarded a standard white Harvard shuttle bus that delivered them to Summers’ home, the Elmwood mansion, for what one Overseer termed “a strictly social dinner.”

The Overseers’ meetings continued without Summers on Sunday morning when the board’s six standing committees met. The Overseers received the recommendations of visiting committees in various departments as well as the reports of other University adminsitrators. Harvard Management Company (HMC) President Jack E. Meyer discussed the performance of the University’s endowment.

HMC announced last week that the University’s endowment slipped 2.7 percent during the last fiscal year, to $18.3 billion. Hewlett said that there was no discssion of belt-tightening measures or future planning—but added that no one asked.

The Overseers adjourned early so that the five new members of the board could attend an orientation in the afternoon. Meanwhile, fellows of the Harvard Corporation, the more powerful board with greater oversight, met on Sunday and again yesterday.

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