Summers Emerges As Student Icon

University President Lawrence H. Summers has signed his autograph on the dollar bill and had his name printed in headlines across the world, but it is his face, plastered on a red T-shirt, that may best symbolize what the president means to Harvard students.

This spring, while faculty members and the national media assailed Summers for his January comments on the representation of women in the sciences, the embattled Summers found support from a more youthful cohort: Harvard’s undergraduates.

It was during the imbroglio that a group of Summers supporters printed T-shirts parodying the popular Che Guevara “Viva La Revolution!”, with Summers’ scowling face above the phrase: “Viva El Presidente Summers!”

A veritable celebrity upon his arrival, Summers has enjoyed treatment worthy of a rock star at Harvard, complete with fancy escorts, a bevy of spokespeople, T-shirts, websites, paparazzi, and the chants of screaming fans at football games and outside Faculty meetings.

As the Class of 2005 prepares to commence, Summers, too, is passing a milestone. He is presiding over the graduation of the first students to be educated entirely under his administration.

Summers was inaugurated as this class was first ushered into the Yard. And this semester, Summers and the Class of 2005 both sought to gain Faculty confidence: the former in his leadership style, the latter in their senior theses.

While most of today’s graduating seniors will not see the effects of two of the University’s biggest projects under Summers—the Harvard College Curricular Review and planning for expansion to Allston—the president’s initiatives, leadership style, and interaction with students have left an indelible mark on today’s Harvard graduates.

Love him or hate him—and many students would attest to the former—the controversial president is the subject of a strange fascination for many undergraduates.

He even seems to have bewildered his own children—at a recent interview, Summers said of the “Viva” T-shirts, with his signature smirk, “My children had never thought of me that way before.”

INTERACTION SATISFACTION

Summers’ supporters and detractors alike say the president has made a great effort to reach out to undergraduates and interact with them on a personal and academic level—much more so than his presidential predecessor, Neil L. Rudenstine.

“Rudenstine was a shy man in a lot of ways,” says Marcel A. Q. LaFlamme ’04-’05, who spent his freshman year under Rudenstine. This year, LaFlamme sat on the Coalition for an Anti-Sexist Harvard, an anti-Summers group established in response to the president’s January remarks at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“[Rudenstine] was a lifelong academic promoted from within the ranks of the Harvard faculty, which is very different from President Summers,” LaFlamme says.

LaFlamme points to one crucial difference between the two presidents: Summers’ cult of personality among Harvard undergraduates can be traced back in part to his high-profile status.

Summers served as Chief Economist of the World Bank from 1991 to 1993 and served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2000.

He has also made a commitment to teaching undergraduate courses. Last year, he taught Freshman Seminar 47t, “Globalization: Opportunities and Challenges,” and this year Summers co-taught the core course Social Analysis 78, “Globalization and its Critics” with another academic superstar, Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel. In addition, he holds office hours several times throughout the year, available by appointment to all students.

Presidents in the past have also taught undergraduate courses: Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 remembers former President James Conant ’13 leading undergraduate chemistry demonstrations wearing a three-piece suit and cuff links.

The Crimson reported in 1954 that Conant was the first University president in a century to teach an undergraduate course while in office, and though he was accused of being “inapproachable,” he made a greater effort than previous presidents to speak to undergraduates in formal and more relaxed settings.

Summers, apart from teaching high demand courses with popular professors, has stood out by making himself more widely available to undergraduate students. “Rudenstine would have his office hours but he didn’t make quite the same effort that Summers did to be physically present in the Houses,” LaFlamme said, referring to the study breaks Summers holds in each upperclass House every year.

And while Summers has been criticized for his interpersonal relations by the faculty, students who have attended his study breaks in the Houses say that he has made a noticeable effort to engage students in civil discourse—even when he is assailed with antagonistic questions.

Ariel S. Wolf ’05 says Summers was not flustered or dismissive when confronted with a question about the rising cost of tuition and the University’s $20 billion endowment.

“[He] crafted a very good response that was very economically sound,” Wolf says. “He took about ten full minutes to answer it and he went through two or three ways to answer to the question.”

But LaFlamme said he remembers Summers being less receptive to criticism before he came under his current string of criticism from faculty this spring.

“I asked him a question about [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] ROTC and his softening Harvard’s stance on it and I feel like the answer I got was a characteristically dismissive and official kind of thing,” LaFlamme said, referring to a study break question and answer session in Mather House. “But the flap about his comments at the conference in January has made Summers and his emissaries more receptive to dialogue and brought more legitimate conversations then in the beginning of this administration.”

Currier House Master Joseph L. Badaracco describes Summers as “student-oriented” and says that Summers inquires at regular intervals about undergraduate concerns.

“[Summers] is direct and open, and he uses the Socratic method to make students think,” Badaracco wrote in an e-mail.

Winthrop House Master Stephen P. Rosen ’74 wrote that Summers treated students as equals and spoke frankly when he appeared at a Winthrop House study break in May. Wolf notes, however, that Summers’ forthcoming style may sometimes be mistaken for rudeness.

“When people say he’s blunt I think they mean he’s very forthcoming,” Wolf says. “In general people expect equivocations but Summers seems willing to take a stand one way or another.”

Rebecca E. Rubins ’05 agrees that Summers responses to student inquiries are sometimes perceived to be more offensive than the President intended.

“I think everyone agrees that he has an attitude and demeanor that alienates people and despite his best efforts he comes off as aloof or arrogant,” Rubins said. “But I think it’s accepted that of all of the presidents in Harvard’s history he’s made an effort to get involved with undergraduates the most.”

But LaFlamme notes that Summers and his entourage of press officials may be consciously trying to encourage interaction with students in order to rebuild the credibility Summers lost in his dealings with the faculty.

“I have felt that Summers was perhaps more invested in face time with students, which was interesting given his reputation for being anti-democratic and unreceptive,” LaFlamme said. “Time will tell whether the time with Harvard students was an investment with credibility and a PR blitz, or whether Summers was actually receptive to dialogue.”

CULT OF PERSONALITY

This spring, while the tide of Faculty opinion appeared to be against Summers, and some students rose up in protest of Summers’ comments, many students on campus publicly supported the president.

Apart from staging rallies outside of the series of Faculty meetings devoted to the Summers affair, students also took to the web to state their stance on their high-profile leader.

A pro-Summers website, studentsforlarry.org, garnered 647 signatures from students and alumni across all of Harvard’s 10 schools, while an online petition started by the Coalition for an Anti-Sexist Harvard calling for Summers resignation garnered just 114 signatures, including non-Harvard affiliates.

Apart from the “Viva” shirts, students decorated dorm room doors with “Summers Safe Space Stickers” which resembled the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance safe space stickers distributed at the beginning of annual ‘Gaypril’ month.

While no formal vote was taken among undergraduates, students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences voted in a March poll that they had confidence in President Summers.

Isaias N. Chaves ’08, a member of the “Students Supporting Summers” group on thefacebook.com, says that much of the president’s support may stem from students’ perception that Summers was unfairly persecuted by the Faculty this spring, rather than his personal appeal.

“A lot of people thought that branding him as sexist was unfair,” Chaves said. “I’m not sure it’s anything special about Summers himself. I’m not even sure he’s a very charismatic guy; even the students supporting Summers say he’s rough around the edges.”

Groups on thefacebook.com run the gamut of Summers support, from the “Larry Summers Defamation League” to “Students for Summers,” with the more ambiguous “Coalition of Harvard Students for the Exorcism of the Hundreds of Souls Living in Larry Summers” and “Larry Summers is a Douchebag, But I Support Him Anyway” also garnering dozens of members.

THE POLITICIAN

To some students, “Larry” provides comic relief, but to others, he has become a poster child of sorts for free speech.

In the last four years, Summers has spoken out against the presence of military recruiters on campus and against professors who advocated divestment from Israel.

“Just the thought of someone like that not being solely interested in placating the Corporation but advocating particular issues or being able to just suggest controversial things,” Wolf says. “You know that if you listen to President Summers he’s going to engage your mind, your thoughts, your opinions, and that’s so much more interesting that just listening to someone spout equivocations.”

FROM PR TO POLICY

While policies directly affecting undergraduates generally fall to College administrators in University Hall, Summers has spearheaded several initiatives and enacted changes that directly effect Harvard College.

In February 2004, Summers unveiled a financial aid initiative that eliminated the family contribution portion of aid packages for families making under $40,000 a year and dramatically reduced the contribution for families making between $40,000 and $60,000 a year.

This year, Summers played a more direct role in undergraduate education, sitting as an ex-officio member of the General Education Committee for the ongoing Harvard College Curricular Review, though he said in May that he would cease formal involvement in the Curricular Review.

But not all of Summers’ decisions have earned him student support.

Four months after Summers was installed and 10 months after students occupied Mass. Hall as part of the Living Wage campaign under Rudenstine’s tenure, Summers announced a new official interpretation of the University’s policy on acceptable forms of student protest.

Summers promised stricter and more uniform punishment for students who occupy University buildings in protest, calling for mandatory suspension of any student involved in such a protest.

Some students have pointed to Summers’ hard-line stance on sit-ins and ROTC as evidence of a top-down, corporate leadership style.

But Summers’ penchant for random instances of student interaction have only added to the love-hate relationship students seem to have with students. Following his appearance at a Currier House study break this spring, Summers took time to bat a wiffleball with the undergraduates present, while still wearing his suit.

And in what has become a freshman year tradition, Summers broke out into dance at a freshman study break in Annenberg in January 2003.

But after that fateful first shimmy, Summers made it apparent that his dance was not just pleasure, but business, too.

“Let me be very clear. There was no individual student with whom I danced for more than 15 seconds,” Summers told The Crimson in 2003. “I danced with groups of students several times.”

—Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.