Even Without Exams, Summers Stresses in January

And you thought you had a bad week.

University President Lawrence H. Summers woke up Monday to the worst public-relations nightmare of his tenure, and for the next seven harrowing days, he and his staff conducted a concerted—and, at times, sluggish—effort to limit the damage from Summers’ controversial remarks on women in science.

After initially standing by his words, apologizing only for a “misunderstanding,” Summers reversed course on Wednesday night in an open-letter to the Harvard community.

“I was wrong,” he wrote, “to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women.”

But the decision to issue an outright apology actually came an entire day earlier, when Summers and his staff in Massachusetts Hall determined the president had to publicly answer the growing din of criticism, according to an individual with knowledge of the central administration’s strategy last week.

The delay, the source said, came as several staffers and Summers himself struggled over the letter’s wording, waiting until Wednesday afternoon to settle on a final version. By then, Summers’ critics had grown louder and more numerous, and the story continued to receive widespread attention in the media.

The letter, which since Thursday has been displayed prominently on the front page of Harvard’s website, was also disseminated to some alumni in an e-mail and to others through the development office’s monthly bulletin.

“I am writing to let you know that President Summers is deeply sorry for any misunderstandings that he may have caused as a result of his recent remarks on women and science,” Donella M. Rapier, vice president for alumni affairs and development, wrote on Friday to a group she identified yesterday as “our volunteers”—fundraising-speak for major donors.

The e-mail underscored what appeared to be great anxiety among the central administration over the potential fallout—monetary or otherwise—from Summers’ comments. In his letter to the Harvard community, Summers made particular note of the “many compelling e-mails and calls that I have received” since his remarks were first reported.

On Friday, Mass. Hall’s damage-control strategy shifted to the long term as Summers announced a hastily-formed initiative to bolster the status of women at Harvard.

As a political move, the initiative appeared significant if only because its leader, Radcliffe Institute Dean Drew Gilpin Faust, is a member of the Faculty Standing Committee on Women, which has issued some of the harshest criticisms of Summers’ remarks.

The precise nature of the initiative, however, remains vague. Faust said Friday she did not yet know of any specific elements of the plan.

As Summers’ strategy evolved over the past week, his office stood by their decision not to release a tape of his remarks, which came at a private economics conference on Jan. 14.

Both conference organizer Richard Freeman, the Goldin and Ascherman professor of economics, and Summers’ spokeswoman, Lucie McNeil, said the conference was off-the-record. McNeil said Summers regularly has his remarks taped for his own personal reference.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.