Thanks for the memories...

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I know that he has a university professorship lined up, but I can't imagine that's all President Summers has in mind for his future? Any ideas? expand post »

The thing about those results is the high percentage who chose "saddened".  Summers obviously did a bunch of stuff to get the undergraduates' support (financial aid, concentrating on us, etc), and seeing 16% more people choose "saddened" than choose "angry" makes the students seem more upset about a friend leaving than a furious at a coup by the faculty.

That is, it seems that we're not saying "What an injustice!  Summer's brilliant plans have been tossed aside!", but rather "oh...he was doing his best, and I wish he were still here."  Does this speak to our rooting for the underdog (which he sure seemed in this situation), our fondness for someone who came to our study breaks,  or something else like that (as opposed to us being unbiased observers and seeing something "wrong" occur?)?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?  The large amount who were not angry, but "saddened" just struck me as sorta odd...

(...rereading that, hope it makes some sense...)
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Hi everyone,

I'm pleased to release the results of my survey on President Summers' resignation.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks again for your interest and participation, and please accept my apologies for the imperfect formatting below.

AMO

Poll Results – Undergraduates Only

Respondent Information

 

Total Undergraduate Respondents:        535

 

Class Year

Freshmen:                                             19.4%

Sophomores:                                        28.7%

Juniors:                                                22.8%

Seniors:                                                29.1%

No Answer:                                          0%

 

Gender

Female:                                                51.6%

Male:                                                    47.5%

Transgender:                                         0.8%

Other:                                                   0.2%

No Answer:                                          0.9%

           

            Political Affiliation

Democrat:                                            55.4%

Republican:                                           13.9%

Somewhere between Democrat

                        and Republican:                        18.9%

Apathetic/Apolitical:                              2.4%

Undecided:                                           2.6%

Other:                                                   6.7%

 

Responses

 

Which of the following describes your reaction to President Summers’ resignation?  (Mark as many choices as are applicable.)

 

A little bit surprised:                              45.6%

Saddened:                                            39.4%

Surprised by the timing:                          28.1%

Angry:                                                  23.5%

Relieved:                                              15.2%

Not surprised at all:                               11.4%

Completely shocked:                            9.8%

Ecstatic:                                                4.9%

Other:                                                   9.9%

 

 

Do you think Summers’ resignation is a good thing or a bad thing for the long-term future of Harvard?

Bad thing:                                             42.6%

I’m ambivalent:                                     29.8%

Good thing:                                           24.6%

Other:                                                   3%

 

Prior to his resignation, would you have called yourself a “supporter” of Summers?

Yes:                                                     44.4%

No:                                                      32.5%

I’m ambivalent:                                      21.6%

Other:                                                   1.5%

 

In your ideal world, who would replace Larry Summers as the next president of Harvard?  (The names below are just a random smattering of suggestions, many of which are beyond improbable, so feel free to use the “other” box.)

 

Bill Clinton                                            17%

Elena Kagan                                         8.4%

Any Woman, Period                             7.2%

Robert Kirshner,                                   6.8%

Al Gore                                                5.8%

 

 

*Please note:  These results are incomplete.  For full results, please contact me at amolson@fas.harvard.edu.  Various subsets of the data, along with free response answers, may be available upon request.

 

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After following coverage of Larry Summers' resignation in The Crimson, The New York Times, and other news outlets, I began to wonder:  So what DO students really think of Larry Summers' resignation?  To find some sort of answer, I set up a survey.  You can take it here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=653951816083

Thanks!  The results will be released soon.

AMO

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Nate, Tom, and Aaron think Larry Summers is a Huge... It's funny in a strange sorta way... expand post »

There have been a lot of different puported reasons for why Larry was kicked out of Mass Hall this week - his blunt management style, simmering anger over his comments on women, and a shortsighted faculty bent on his destruction.

But what about the trouble in Russia?

Greek and Latin professor Richard Thomas, the chairman of the classics department and a member of three key committees of the faculty of arts and sciences, agrees with Lewis's last point at least: "If I had been found liable for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, with the result that Harvard had to pay a substantial settlement, I can't imagine there would have been no consequences for me," Thomas tells [Institutional Investor].

Something tells me that the economics of the Shleifer case has at least some part in Larry's recent fall from grace.

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I had an interesting conversation with someone from the LA Times this morning and one of things we were talking about was why students were so disproportionately in support of Summers relative to the Faculty.  Some great points have already been brought up on this blog directly related to this issue--my hope is that we can continue with that discussion and start a dialogue on the post-Summers world.

We all see that there is a significant divergence between the Faculty and the student body with respect to Summers' resignation.  Students are significantly more in support of the President than the Faculty and generally opposed to his resignation.  But why?

It's clearly not charm. 

I think students at Harvard are afraid that by removing Summers the Faculty will also erase the positive elements of his vision.  Particularly with respect to undergraduate life, I personally am worried that the focus will once again move away from the College.  While our graduate schools are wonderful, the College is this University's roots and Summers seemed to acknowledge that.

What will happen with him gone?  Will the College once again be forgotten?
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I figured this blog is about Larry. So, I've created the Presidential Search Blog about the search for the 28th President of Harvard University. Please join and post any ideas/thoughts there. Of course the main question is who will be selected?

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Summersville and Elise Stefanik get a shout out in a Slate article on Summers:

Summersville bills itself as an "open forum for debate on President Larry Summers," and poster Elise Stefanik has got little truck with Harvard's putsch professoriat: "The idea that faculty members can dictate the future of the management of Harvard University has now set the precedent that faculty members are responsible for the visioning, and execution of planning for all universities, as Harvard is, a model of modern education. That Summers was forced out by a minority of the greater university's faculty is not only a bad precedent for Harvard, but a dangerous precedent for educational institutions as a whole."

Here's the story...

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