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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Many of you are familiar with Philosophy Professor Christine Korsgaard's course, "Kant's Ethical Theory."  And many of you are aware that this course won't be offered again until most of us are long gone.  Prof. Korsgaard received a substantial grant that will relieve her of her teaching obligations for some time to come.

That's fine; I have no problem with that.  Good for her.  But I was discussing her situation with another faculty member in the department (whom I won't name here).  This individual said, with palpable envy, "Oh, yeah.  She's not going to have to teach undergraduates for three whole years!"

Evidently, we are little more than irritating chores to the venerable members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Some people have had great experiences with faculty members.  That's terrific.  But I'm absolutely sure (and I think most of you would agree) that the attitude of the person in my anecdote is far more representative of faculty members than that of Robert Kirshner or Leo Damrosch.  Beyond the house masters and a few other popular professors, faculty members don't care much about (nor much for) undergraduates.  And that's why the undergraduate education here is mediocre (at least, compared to what Harvard could offer were it so inclined, as Larry said in his letter).

There's no reason why one should have to choose between the intimate pedagogy of Amherst and the impersonal resources of Harvard.  Yale is presently doing a fine job unifying the two, and that's precisely what Larry Summers wanted to do by assuming a more prominent role in undergraduate administration and favoring tenure offers to younger, more robust scholars who were more likely to want to teach undergrads instead of feeling obliged to do so.

And that's my beef.  Larry could have done better, but if he had ever been given the chance, he could have done an absolutely phenomenal job in revolutionizing Harvard's undergraduate education.  But the fucking dinosaurs who control the FAS - people like Judith Ryan and Daniel Fisher - are more concerned with their own self-esteem than the good of the College.

Some divorce Larry's personality from Larry's vision and say that it was the former that did him in.  This argument is used to cast the crisis optimistically: all we need to do (by this mode of thinking) is to find a leader with the same vision but better tact, and we'll be good to go.  But come on.  The FAS was opposed to the project, and in a lame attempt to veil the shocking invalidity of their position, they blamed their opposition on Larry's lack of tact.  At the end of the day, it's Larry's vision that they can't accept, and that's exactly why we shouldn't accept them or their child-like power bids.

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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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Here's a link to a Bloomberg column that, I think, sums up the crisis quite worthily.  (If somebody already linked to this, I apologize.)

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_sperling&sid=aLUBp_vrwblM

In other news, the Faculty has decided to cancel its February 28 meeting.  Funny; I always suspected that Judith Ryan and her neighborhood posse were card-carrying members of the bush league (and J.V. members at that), but this development has made me certain. 

But who, really, is surprised?  The Faculty could have used this opportunity to return to the work of the University, which is what Judy & Co. maintained Summers' resignation would allow them to do.  But are any of us still so naive to believe that this Faculty cares at all about the interests of undergraduates?

So much for our project (the protest at the meeting), but I still don't think we should let them get away with this so easily.  Any other ideas?

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