News Analysis: Focus Widens In Attack on President

The swelling torrent of criticism facing University President Lawrence H. Summers quickly broadened yesterday into a full-blown assault on his entire tenure in a shift which could ultimately prove far more damaging for Harvard’s embattled leader.

The president’s critics, who had limited their attacks of late to Summers’ controversial comments on women in science, raised a litany of complaints at yesterday’s Faculty meeting, harkening back as far as the beginning of his term—and beyond.

And while most professors who took the floor yesterday were long-time opponents of Summers, their remarks were most notable for the widespread, often thunderous applause which repeatedly erupted from the packed crowd of professors.

“This has been a searing afternoon for me,” Summers acknowledged at the end of the 90-minute onslaught in the Faculty Room at University Hall.

Though professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences represent just one of Harvard’s 10 schools, their support—or, at the very least, their lack of vocal opposition—is essential to Summers’ viability in the University’s top administrative post. All Harvard presidents face inevitable criticism from their adversaries, but the deep-seated opposition apparent at yesterday’s meeting seemed to pose an immediate affront to Summers’ job security.

All but one member of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, did not return calls seeking comment yesterday. But in a brief interview, James F. Rothenberg ’68, the University treasurer, declined to comment when asked whether Summers had the support of the Corporation.

Late last night, in a statement delivered through Lucie McNeil, Summers’ spokeswoman, Rothenberg said, “It would be a serious mistake to infer from my having declined to comment that I am anything other than fully supportive of President Summers and his leadership.”

But even though Summers’ most vehement critics began suggesting in interviews last night that Summers might have to resign, the prospect of his stepping down still seemed just a distant possibility.

Former University President James Bryant Conant ’13, who presided over Harvard in the middle of the last century, faced similarly fierce faculty criticism over tenure policies early in his presidency, but survived to serve for a respected twenty-year term.

For Summers, the tone and outcome of next Tuesday’s special meeting of the Faculty seems especially crucial.

Several professors requested yesterday that he release a tape or transcript of his remarks last month on women in science.

That move could potentially diffuse some of the mounting faculty criticism before Tuesday’s meeting.

Yesterday, professors raised issues from the curricular review to the University’s expansion into Allston to Summers’ famous spat with former Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74. They said Summers’ tenure has been marked by a style of leadership more akin to a for-profit corporation or governmental bureaucracy than an academic institution.

Even the two chairs of Summers’ newly formed task forces on women, while praising him for committing to their cause, took time to issue a more general criticism of the president as well.

Chair of the Task Force on Women Faculty Evelyn M. Hammonds, professor of the history of science and of African and African American studies, called for a “clearing of the air so that we can do our work both effectively and successfully.”

Several professors echoed that sentiment, referring to what they perceived as a toxic atmosphere at Harvard under Summers.

Seemingly no facet of Summers’ public history went unnoticed at yesterday’s meeting.

J. Lorand Matory, professor of anthropology and of African and African American studies, even mentioned the controversial memo Summers signed while chief economist at the World Bank in 1991.

The memo suggested moving pollution-producing industries from developed nations to what he called “under-polluted” third-world countries.

“Perhaps the third world is under-polluted,” Matory said sarcastically. “We should discuss it.”

Before facing the firing squad of faculty at 4 p.m. yesterday, Summers did not betray any unease that may have been brewing.

Not known for his punctuality, Summers arrived fifteen minutes early for the meeting after a short walk across the Yard from his office in Massachusetts Hall. Wearing a suit but no coat in yesterday’s temperate weather, Summers was accompanied by his chief of staff, Jason Solomon ’93-’95.

As he left University Hall nearly two hours later, looking worn after the barrage of criticism, Summers was accompanied back to his office by Elisa New, an English professor and his long-term girlfriend.

Summers canceled a planned study break at Pforzheimer House last night, but he made a brief appearance late yesterday at a student reception.

According to several of those in attendance, Summers did not discuss details of the Faculty meeting, saying only that he had just come from the “hot seat.”

-—William C. Marra and Sara E. Polsky contributed to the reporting of this story.

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