Administrators Meet Summers

Lawrence H. Summers met with high-level University officials for the first time in his capacity as Harvard president-elect yesterday, speaking with University deans and vice presidents on topics ranging from faculty recruitment to the state of science at Harvard during a lunch meeting in Loeb House.

Administrators listened to a brief introduction by Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the presidential search committee, and ate a buffet-style luncheon around a horseshoe-shaped table, after which Summers made a few remarks and then took questions.

The atmosphere of the meeting was described as informal.

"It was very cordial and welcoming. Very celebratory," said Anne Taylor, vice president and general counsel to the University.

Summers was equally upbeat about the meeting.

"I enjoyed it," he said. "We had a good and warm discussion. I look forward to working with the deans," he said as he departed, luggage in hand, for Logan Airport and a flight back to his home in Bethesda, Md.

"He seemed happy and interested in what [the administrators] are up to," said Hanna H. Gray, a member of the Corporation and the search committee.

During the meeting, Summers heard administrators' concerns and asked questions of his own.

He asked the deans what "larger issues do they deal with on a day-to-day basis," Gray said.

Attendees said the discussion was "wide-ranging," and said Summers seemed to enjoy himself.

"[He] revealed a very serious, wide-ranging intelligence, [and was] willing to get into substantive discussions very quickly," said Paul S. Grogan, vice president for government, community and public affairs.

"There was good discussion," said Sally H. Zeckhauser, vice president for administration.

Outside of Loeb House, members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement protested the secrecy of the process to select Summers and expressed hope that he would support a living wage for Harvard employees, the second such demonstration in two days. A smaller group of students protested the official announcement of Summers' selection on Sunday.

Inside the meeting, though, Summers made a good impression on the assembled administrators.

"He conveyed a sense of how honored he his and how excited he is," Grogan said.

Summers spent part of the day before the lunch making phone calls to a prepared list of "friends of the University," and political figures on a local and national level, including Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

He will continue meeting with University officials over the next several months before assuming his post on July 1.

Emerging from Loeb House after the yesterday's meeting, Conrad K. Harper, Corporation and search committee member, said the meeting left him enthusiastic about the future.

"[The meeting was] just wonderful," he said. "The new president is excellent."

--Staff writer Andrew J. Miller can be reached at amiller@fas.harvard.edu.