Summers Storm Not Deterring Applicants

The last time that University Hall became the scene of an anti-administration revolt, the ripples extended all the way to the college applicant pool.

This time, though, experts and applicants alike believe that history won’t repeat itself.

In 1969, amid nationwide anti-war protests, students forcefully occupied the hall. That incident was one factor leading to the resignation of then-President Nathan M. Pusey ’28 two years later.

From 1969 to 1970, applications to Harvard College dropped by 6 percent, and again dropped 12 percent the following year.

Last month, University Hall was once more the site of an anti-administration revolt—with more than a dozen professors confronting President Lawrence H. Summers at a full Faculty meeting Feb. 7, and ultimately producing his ouster.

Will the Summers storm cast its pallor on the College’s sky-high yield rate—the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll?

Last spring, Harvard’s yield topped the Ivies at 78.5 percent—almost a full 10 percentage points better than next-place Yale. And the director of college guidance at Collegiate High School in New York City, Bruce J. Breimer, doesn’t expect any radical change.

“I’d be shocked if this was a factor in some sort of plummeting yield,” he said.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said that the campus controversies of the late 1960s were only “one factor” contributing to the decline in applications at that time.

And last year, when Summers sparked a national uproar with his remarks on women in science, the College experienced “virtually no change in the yield,” Fitzsimmons said.

When asked whether the controversy over Summers would deter prospective students, Weary Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatue Judith L. Ryan said, “I think that is something that would concern anybody.”

Yet one Harvard hopeful, Clay R. Hane, a senior at Cary Academy in North Carolina, said, “I don’t think it would be a major make or break.”

Most commonly in interviews, high school seniors said that regardless of the tumult that has surrounded Summers, a Harvard education is still a Harvard education.

“Academics, which is the primary reason I would attend Harvard, are not affected by Larry Summers,” said one applicant, Jeff N. Fox, a senior at Randolph High School in New Jersey.

“The professors are still the professors, the classes still the classes,” he added.

An already-admitted member of the Class of 2010, Elena D. Butler, now a senior at San Francisco University High School, said in a phone interview that she and her friends “seemed to be way more focused on the academic reputation of Harvard than the media.”

In a letter published in The New York Times on Tuesday, Butler wrote, “Every institution has the right to make mistakes, even one as scrutinized as Harvard.

Furthermore, among most applicants interviewed, the tumult at the top of Harvard’s hierarchy would only play at most a minor role in their decisions.

“If push comes to shove it could definitely fit into some of the calculus,” said Daniel E. Rauch, a senior at Millburn High School in New Jersey. But, he added, at that point “it’s really about splitting hairs.”

‘NO COMPANY LINE’

For some prospective students, Summers’ departure might make Harvard more attractive.

“He wasn’t necessarily perceived as a positive aspect of Harvard,” said applicant Matt S. Levinson, also a senior at Randolph High School. Consequently, he added, the media attention and the resignation “won’t necessarily negatively affect the majority of people applying.”

And a senior Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md., Alex Imas, who did not apply to Harvard, said, “I think more highly of Harvard now than I did a year ago.” The Faculty’s expression of dissent “tells me that there’s no company line they have to follow there,” he said.

Imas added that “controversy is a good thing. Controversy forces issues to the forefront, and if there’s anything wrong with Harvard, this tells you it’s going to change.”

For professors and prospective students alike, Harvard’s handling of the fallout from Summers’ departure might be the most important factor in determining the long-term impact of the crisis.

Hane, the Harvard hopeful from North Carolina, said that the University “needs to step up and fill his [Summers’] shoes.”

“Immediately, it’s not a big issue of importance, but if they can’t keep up the fundraising,” that could prove more detrimental, Hane said.

Levinson said that for applicants “already in love” with Harvard, the most recent episode won’t end the romance, but. But, he added, “if you look to future years, it could set them astray.”

—Staff writer Benjamin L. Weintraub can be reached bweintr@fas.harvard.edu.