NYT: A Harvard Governor(only black member of Corp.), Dissatisfied, Resigns

[DeepModem Mom]

A Harvard Governor, Dissatisfied, Resigns
By ALAN FINDER
Published: July 29, 2005


The only black member of the Harvard Corporation, the university's seven-member governing board, said yesterday that he was resigning over disagreements with Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers.

Dr. Summers has had several public disputes with prominent black faculty members and provoked outrage earlier this year when he made remarks suggesting that "intrinsic aptitude" might be a factor behind the low number of women in science and engineering.

The corporation member, Conrad K. Harper, said in a telephone interview, "I have concluded I can no longer support President Summers." The university announced his resignation yesterday.

Mr. Harper, a lawyer in Manhattan and a former president of the City Bar Association, declined to discuss his specific reasons for stepping down. He said he had laid them out in a letter to Dr. Summers and other members of the corporation on July 14. He said it was up to Harvard to release the letter....

***

The resignation is the latest in a series of actions suggesting significant dissatisfaction with Dr. Summers's leadership. In 2002, his troubled relationship with members of its black studies department prompted a star professor, Cornel West, to move to Princeton....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/education/29harvard.html

[Pithy Cherub]

1. Summers has some real leadership issues.

This is disgraceful and an uneccesary shame. Dr. Summers has a school that specializes in leadership or executives purviews and he needs to either avail himself of their services or resign for the good of Harvard.

[cosmicdot]

2. hope he copied some documents re Harken-Bu$h-Harvard

before departing


The Bush Harken Insider Trading Collection

Don't let Bush fool you, he's as slimy a businessman as any that ran Enron.

http://www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/bush_harken.html


Harvard invested heavily in Harken

By Beth Healy and Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, 10/30/2002

It was a moment of deep embarrassment in 1991 when Harvard University's prestigious endowment fund admitted it had just experienced its worst loss ever. Jack Meyer, Harvard Management Co. president, said at the time he hoped the fund would never again take such a big hit, a $200 million write-down.

Back then there was relatively little focus on one major reason for the loss: Harvard Management's large and ill-timed bet on little-known Harken Energy Co., whose board included George W. Bush, then the son of the US president and now the president himself. Even as losses mounted, Harvard Management bailed out the troubled company, first by splitting up Harken and then by sheltering Harken's liabilities in a partnership.

Indeed, even as Bush was dumping the bulk of his Harken holdings - about $848,000 in stock sold to a buyer whose name has never been disclosed - Harvard Management plowed millions more into the firm.

Several former Harvard Management officials said in interviews that they wanted to pull out of the Harken deal, but they said one man in particular - Harvard Management executive and Harken director Michael Eisenson - resolutely insisted he could turn around the investment by pumping more money into it.

~snip~

http://web.archive.org/web/20021108172042/http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/303/nation/Harvard_invested_heavily_in_Harken+.shtml