NYT: Harvard Pres Tells Women's Panel He's Sorry (he requested meeting)

[DeepModem Mom]

President of Harvard Tells Women's Panel He's Sorry
By SAM DILLON and SARA RIMER
Published: January 21, 2005


The Harvard University president, Lawrence H. Summers, apologized personally on Thursday to a group of distinguished women professors as he battled to convince the university's faculty of his commitment to diversity after remarks suggesting that women may be innately less able to succeed in math and science careers.

"We cut right to the chase," said Lizabeth Cohen, a history professor who participated in the meeting. "He regrets what he said, and I hope that he will prove that by taking constructive steps. We're going to be in intense discussions with him over the next week."

Dr. Summers requested the meeting with a dozen members of the group, the Standing Committee on Women, after it reproached Dr. Summers in a letter on Tuesday, saying his remarks to a Jan. 14 academic conference "did not serve our institution well" and had reinforced an institutional culture at Harvard that has made it difficult to recruit top women scholars....

***

Earlier in the day, Dr. Summers got yet another indication of just how upset faculty members were over his remarks when more than 100 of the about 600 professors on Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences added their names to a letter endorsing the reproachful letter sent him by the standing committee. Howard Georgi, a former chairman of the physics department, said he collected the names over the past two days by issuing a mass e-mail message to a faculty Caucus for Gender Equity....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/national/21harvard.html

[renaissanceguy]

1. While I believe political correctness serves a purpose...

sometimes it takes unpolitically-correct statements like his to shed light on attitudes and problems our country faces. That is why I look at deeds more than words.

"Of course women are equal." But do they pay women equally? Do they let women control their own bodies?

"I'm not a gay basher." But do you support hate crime laws? Why do you have a problem with gays' relationships, when they don't affect your own?

(I mean "you" in a figurative sense, of course.)

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.16779191

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.16778990

[aquart]

2. I understand that the hiring of female professors

has decreased each year of his tenure. He's a pig and needs to go bye bye. Bacon? Pork chops? Something useful?

[xchrom]

3. don't buy it, summers is the tool being used

to turn harvard into a gop bastion of higher education.
corporate gop is pissed that conservatives make lousy intellectuals -- and pissed at harvard in particular because it has produced some brilliant leftist thinkers.
particularly in law.
he will make like he is sorry and continue trying to turn the institution into a corporate gop approved education machine.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. "Let women keep silence in the church" (and college classrooms) as

an extension of Paul's statement. (1 Corinthians 14:34).

This may be a systematic program of removing women from the classroom, first as professors and then as students. That would make the gender more predisposed to being domestic slaves, as the fundamentalist Christians have deemed their "natural" and "Godly" role on earth.

[noamnety]

4. In the article

There's a whole lot of "sorry I said it" but not much "the statement was wrong."

[Triana]

6. Why is HE still there?

Why hasn't he been ousted yet?

[zbird]

7. Because of attitudes like those expressed by my local paper (SW MI)

editorial board (requires registration, but here's the basics):

snip...

America's campus PC police have claimed another victim in the relentless effort to root out anybody who doesn't fall in line with a narrow, liberal view of the world.

snip...

We'll say very clearly that we do not know whether Summers' theories are on the mark or all wet, though common sense would suggest that the partial trade-off between raising children and climbing to the heights of success at elite universities could help explain why the math and science research field is dominated by men.

As for the more controversial remark about "innate" differences, there are those who believe that male brains are more adept at the kind of non-verbal spatial logic that higher math requires, while women tend to excel more in verbal academic pursuits. A lot more study would be needed to say conclusively either way.

snip...

Which brings us to our main point. This notion that everybody in academia - and indeed in most of the rest of society - must always walk on eggshells before speaking is a dangerous, short-sighted view. The very backbone of research should be to keep an open mind about the subject at hand.

But this is difficult in an academic world dominated by leftists with a clear-cut political agenda.

snip..

http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2005/01/20/editorial/in%20our%20opinion/ouropinion.txt

Need I say that this paper endorsed *?

[Triana]

8. leftists with a clear-cut political agenda eh?

This must have been from the same a**holes that are going to all the Universities in the nation trying to get professors ousted and cirriculums changed that do not espouse *only* the neo-con, fascist viewpoint.

WHO has a clear-cut political agenda, then? I think the pot calls the kettle black here.

I know how to spell H Y P O C R I T E - there's some language skill for ya.

:evilgrin:

[old blue]

10. *Has* it been demonstrated conclusively either way?

I'm referring to the statement, "there are those who believe that male brains are more adept at the kind of non-verbal spatial logic that higher math requires, while women tend to excel more in verbal academic pursuits. A lot more study would be needed to say conclusively either way."

I would be interested in reading any relevant studies that have formed a conclusion on this, if anyone is aware of such.

[Triana]

9. He is sorry, so Goodbye, Mr. Lawrence! (n/t)