NYT: Rift Deepens as Professors at Harvard See Remarks

[DeepModem Mom]

Rift Deepens as Professors at Harvard See Remarks
By SARA RIMER

Published: February 19, 2005


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 18 - A mood of uncertainty settled over Harvard University on Friday in the aftermath of President Lawrence H. Summers's release of the transcript of his contentious remarks last month about the shortage of women in the sciences and engineering.

Many people were parsing and debating the often dense and rambling 7,000-word transcript, a long-awaited document that quickly became a must-read on campus.

A group of professors and students was collecting names on letters supporting Dr. Summers. Another group of professors, who had criticized Dr. Summers's leadership style at a tense faculty meeting on Tuesday, was continuing to discuss the matter.

Scholars normally immersed in research and teaching were preoccupied with questions about the leadership of the university, to which many of them have devoted their adult lives.

"My sense of the mood among key faculty is that they're deeply, deeply distressed about the way this entire thing is tearing the university apart, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in particular," said Theda Skocpol, a government professor who spoke out against Dr. Summers at the meeting. "And I share that distress."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/education/19harvard.html

[donsu]

1. maybe it's time to tear the university apart - this is not a first

see the fight Dr. Mary Daly had with them in the past.

search engines should turn up oodles of information.

[struggle4progress]

2. Daly was at Boston University, not Harvard. eom

[jcappy]

3. No, Boston College...

you know, the Jesuit institution.

i'll bet she's following this one closely, tho.

[struggle4progress]

4. You are absolutely right. My clumsy. eom

[AngryAmish]

5. He must be silenced

No one may speak of this issue.

[Ellen Forradalom]

6. You rented "PCU" one too many times.

No one's trying to "silence" him.

[bemildred]

7. He must be fired.

He can speak all he likes. He has no right to the job.

[spooky3]

9. Agreed. Every top social scientist who is not a bigot

would know exactly what the literature said before calling for more research. The fact that he did not know what research has demonstrated to date speaks volumes about whether he was really calling for research versus now attempting to dress up his bigotry in academic doublespeak.

[Toots]

8. He doesn't need to be silenced just removed from his position

What if he had said ID will now be taught instead of evolution? Would you still want him to be the one in charge of such a renouned institution? IMHO what he said is just as ridiculous.

[gottaB]

10. "embarassment and dishonor"

That's putting it mildly.