Faculty Council Looks to Corporation

The Faculty Council, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) 18-member governing body, hopes to meet with members of the Harvard Corporation to discuss faculty discontent with University President Lawrence H. Summers’ governance of the University.

“It’s quite perplexing and distressing to read in the media...that the Corporation do not even know that the Faculty are disgruntled or discontent,” said Assistant Professor of Sociology Prudence L. Carter, who is a member of the Council. “There is too much of a disjuncture between the management of the University and the employees of the University.”

She added that the Faculty Council has yet to approach the Corporation with the proposal.

In a meeting yesterday, which focused entirely on ways to remedy Faculty dissatisfaction with Summers, the Council discussed the possibility of adding additional meetings of the Faculty, though no plans have been finalized.

Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith Ryan said that additional meetings are especially necessary because the Summers controversy has prevented the Faculty from discussing pressing business matters—particularly the Curricular Review, which was on the agenda for last Tuesday’s meeting but went unaddressed.

In addition to its possible meeting with the Corporation, the Faculty Council will meet with smaller groups of Faculty members—including the two recently-formed University task forces on women.

Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn, who is a member of the Council, said that the meetings with the University-wide task forces will be designed to ensure that the task forces maintain close cooperation with FAS.

The Council wants to involve FAS in “indicating [its] particular interest and support for the work that the task forces are in,” Mendelsohn said.

He added that the Faculty Council also discussed a range of grievances that have been aired by professors.

“We discussed the manner in which University business is currently being done, the nature of the leadership, particular effects on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, [and] on what [the] appropriate relationship might be between the FAS and the governing boards,” he said.

The Faculty Council, which usually meets biweekly, will be meeting again “in urgency” next week, Mendelsohn said.

—Staff writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached polsky@fas,harvard.edu.