Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard University, stepped down from his post at America’s top educational institution on Tuesday after a five-year reign punctuated by battles with a rebellious academic staff and public relations gaffes.
”I have reluctantly concluded that the rifts between me and segments of the arts and sciences faculty make it infeasible for me to advance the agenda of renewal that I see as crucial to Harvard’s future,” he wrote in his letter of resignation. ”As fulfilling as they have been in many ways, these last years have not been without their strains and moments of rancour.”
Summers, who was criticised last year for saying that innate differences between men and women probably lead to there being fewer women at the very top in maths and science, made his exit only days before a meeting with academic staff that professors had predicted would be a ”bloodbath” for the Harvard chief, who has been widely criticised for his abrasive manner. He had been expected to face his third no-confidence vote from professors in less than a year. His resignation is effective on July 1.
With his departure, Summers, known as a brilliant economist before serving as treasury secretary under president Bill Clinton, brings to an end one of the most fractious eras in Harvard history. He will be replaced by Derek Bok, a law professor who was president of Harvard from 1971 to 1991.
Although the outgoing Harvard chief was acknowledged for his prodigious intellect and his energy, his mission of reform was fatally compromised by his inability to get along with staff — particularly in arts and science where there was fierce resistance to his efforts to assert central control over budgets.
Summers had arrived at Harvard with an ambitious reform programme. He was widely praised for his stewardship of plans for an expansion into a new campus, and for encouraging scientific research through a new stem cell research centre.
Under his leadership, Harvard also waived fees for students who come from families with an income below $40 000.
But running battles with faculty and ill-advised remarks eclipsed those achievements. His reputation for arrogance and rudeness became a convenient target for opponents of plans to centralise budgets.
The continuous tumult began to raise doubts within Harvard’s governing body, known as the Corporation, that Summers was a safe pair of hands for an institution with an endowment worth $26-billion.
Summers made a parting dig on Tuesday: ”Believing deeply that complacency is among the greatest risks facing Harvard, I have sought for the last five years to prod and challenge the university to reach for the most ambitious goals in creative ways.” He added: ”There surely have been times when I could have done this in wiser or more respectful ways.”
Rumours of his departure followed a series of defeats against staff and — more crucially — losing the support of the corporation. Disaffection with Summers hit a new high last month with the abrupt resignation of faculty dean, William Kirby.
A former dean of the graduate school of arts and science later told the Boston Globe he had stepped down because he could not work with Summers. ”Maybe this is the way secretaries of the Treasury treat people to whom they have delegated authority, but it’s not the way a university like this has or should operate,” Peter Ellison was quoted as saying.
Summers’s tenure at Harvard began in acrimony when he accused a prominent African American professor, Cornel West, of devoting too much attention to activities he did not view as fitting academic pursuits. Summers never really recovered from his gaffe a year ago when he told a conference on women and minorities in science that there were fewer women at the very top in maths and the sciences because of innate gender differences. – Guardian Unlimited Â