Summers Works To Fill Positions

Despite a first week shortened by the July 4th holiday, University President Lawrence H. Summers’ new administration got under way as the new president began to round out his Mass. Hall staff and continued work on the two high level searches that are among his highest priorities.

And observers said that while there were probably going to be few new initiatives that required Summers’ explicit presidential approval, there was also no sense that the business of the university would be put on hold until Summers gets his bearing.

As part of an effort to mold Summers’ support staff to fit his needs and work style, Marne Levine was expected to be named to the new position of chief of staff as early as today.

The chief of staff is designed to help focus staff resources on the President’s agenda, organize his workload, and coordinate relations with other branches of the administration.

Until last week, Levine assisted Summers at the Brookings Institute, the Washington think-tank where Summers spent six months following his government service.

Levine first worked closely with Summers when she was a deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury Department while summers was deputy secretary and later secretary of the department. She was involved in the repeal of the Glass-Steagal banking act, one of Summers’ major accomplishments, as well as some of the other legislative victories the department claims.

The chief of staff position—the first such position in recent memory—is an addition to the Mass. Hall staff. Jacqueline A. O’Neill will continue to serve as Staff Director, a position she held under Summers’ predecessor Neil L. Rudenstine. O’Neill said that she was supportive of the idea of the new position and said it reflected “the professionalization of academia” that has occurred over the past ten years, where professional staff support and preparation is a must.

O’Neill said that given what she has seen of Summers so far, she thinks the chief of staff will serve as a facilitator of consultation rather than a control on access to the president.

“In academic settings the chief of staff is not a gate keeper. It’s the nature of Harvard that there are just far too many avenues of collaboration, and Larry’s style is to consult as many people as possible,” O’Neill said.

Indeed, Summers consulted widely this week, meeting with officials and staffers in the provost and vice-presidents’ offices, Mass. Hall employees and other senior staff members.

He has also begun to visit with lower-level administrators and faculty as the latest installment of what one friend called a “Hillary Clinton-esque listening tour.”

Summers also spent a portion of his first week wading through the materials pertaining to the searches for two vacant high level positions, provost and vice president for government, community, and public affairs—both of which were vacated the day before Summers arrived.

Summers has discussed the provost position with a range of observers, and considers finding the right person for the job a top priority. Some maintained that Summers isn’t going to be rushed, but others were led to expect a new Provost by the end of the summer.

In the search for the vice-president Summers’ circle of consultation has stretched beyond Harvard’s walls to the world of Washington Summers inhabited for the last decade.

Candidates visited Mass. Hall for conversations this week. Resume materials of candidates for the job fill two three-ring binders.

The vice-president’s job involves working on national, state, and local fronts, and those Summers has consulted said he is looking for a candidate whose experience combines all three areas.

Paul S. Grogan who held the position from January 1999 until last week, brought a local focus to an office that had previously concentrated more on the national scene.

Harvard’s behind-the-scenes land grab in Allston stretched town-gown relations with Boston. Grogan’s short tenure was marked by a concerted effort to improve these relations.

Now with the bulk of the Allston planning still to be finalized and Harvard’s purchase of the Watertown Arsenal property raising hackles, the local connection remains an important qualification.

In a final search, Summers was expected to meet this week with candidates for Harvard’s athletic director position. Three finalists for the job visited Cambridge this week to meet with deans and officials.

Beyond the personnel searches, no major initiatives were expected to be in store for Summers for the time being.

Observers said that while Summers was delving into the details of his job, few immediate issues required his final say before this fall.

While there is no conscious effort to go easy on the new president, they said, there was a sense that the first priority should be in bringing the president up to speed on what is being worked on and what is in the pipeline for a later date.

Except for unpredictable legal cases and possibly a stray tenure case, Summers should be able to focus on getting ready for the fall, when official meetings of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard’s other schools start up again, and the questions regarding Summers’ policies will begin to be answered.

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