President-Elect Faust Is a Wise, Intellectual Choice

To the editors:



Shame on Christopher B. Lacaria ’09 for his uninformed and anti-intellectual column (“The Apotheosis of Dr. Faust,” Feb. 11) disparaging President-elect Drew Gilpin Faust, whose selection has been greeted by real celebration by those on the more “academic” side of the Harvard spectrum, whether in science or the humanities. Shame, too, on the many undergraduate commentators (visible in The Crimson’s online edition) who make similar comments and claim to be “disappointed” with the selection of Faust—or, worse, who produce outrightly sexist and ignorant rants. These undergraduates were hoping instead for a retired celebrity from the world of business or government: full speed ahead from the pages of The New York Times to Cambridge, Massachusetts! And all the better if the new president has a gimmick, for these are the sort of kids who were utterly delighted when former University President Lawrence H. Summers would autograph their dollar bills beneath his signature as Secretary of the Treasury.

Thank goodness Harvard doesn’t work like that, at least not all the time. It remains an academic institution, however inconvenient or archaic that may seem to these “disappointed” few. No institution (particularly an academic one) can endure if it dances to the headlines or follows fads—and those who know Faust and her scholarship are excited about her selection, and hopeful that the coming decades will be ones of intellectual renewal and quiet, steady accomplishment. May I suggest that the new president make it an early priority to raise the scholarly standards required of current undergraduates? It is no doubt a thankless task to undertake, but one that would have the minor benefit of improved commentary in The Crimson.



DAVID S. GREWAL ’98

February 13th, 2007

Cambridge, MA