A month after Harvard University President Lawrence Summers said that women may have less innate mathematic and scientific ability than men, he continues to face a storm of criticism that threatens to tarnish and even end his presidency.
The latest backlash came at a meeting of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Tuesday, the first faculty meeting after Summers delivered his controversial remarks Jan. 14. With over 250 faculty members present, Summers sat quietly during the 90-minute meeting, where he was berated by professors, the Harvard Crimson reported Wednesday.
Tuesday's faculty meeting marked the first time in recent weeks that criticism of Summers expanded from attacks on his comments about women to general criticism about his tenure as Harvard's president, the Crimson reported.
"(We must) show the public that we are not cowards, we are not spineless and we are not with you," said Arthur Kleinman, chair of Harvard's anthropology department, according to the Crimson, which was the only news organization permitted at the meeting.
According to the Crimson, criticisms of Summers ranged from his tendency to stifle debate and intimidate professors into silence to the debacle surrounding the 2002 departure of Professor Cornell West and inflammatory comments Summers made before his arrival at Harvard.
Faculty members said Summers' autocratic leadership style is more fit for a government bureaucracy or a corporation than an academic institution.
One professor, according to the Crimson, reminded faculty members at the meeting of a remark Summers made in 1991 as chief economist of the World Bank, when he suggested transferring pollution-producing industries from developed countries to what he called the "under-polluted" Third World.
Diana Eck, a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies, told the Associated Press, "I've never seen a faculty meeting like it. So many people stood and spoke from the heart about how they felt about his leadership."
The faculty meeting ended with a unanimous vote to convene an unusual emergency faculty meeting Tuesday, when faculty members are expected to cast a vote of confidence regarding Summers.
"Judging from the meeting today I think the likelihood of a no confidence vote is high," Harvard Professor of Sociology and Department Chair Mary Waters told the Crimson.
The Crimson reported that Summers is not expected to resign in advance of next Tuesday's faculty meeting, though his resignation is not out of the question.
"Many of your faculty are dismayed and alienated and demoralized. There is a legitimate crisis concerning your leadership and style of governance," Kleinman told Summers, according to a transcript of his remarks released to the Boston Globe. "I have heard several outstanding colleagues say it is time to leave Harvard. I don't believe that, but I fear others do. I ask you then to think hard about how who you are as president has taken us to this dangerous moment."
Summers expressed regret at the meeting, though some faculty members present told the Crimson they thought his apology was insincere.
"I deserve much of the criticism that has come my way. If I could turn back the clock, I would have said and done things very differently," Summers said at the meeting, according to the Crimson.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is only one of 10 schools at Harvard, but it is the largest and most powerful because it comprises the undergraduate college and the graduate school of arts and sciences.
Summers has also faced criticism from his colleagues at other institutions. Last week, three university presidents released an unusual rebuke of their counterpart at Harvard.
John Hennessy of Stanford, Susan Hockfield of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Shirley Tilghman of Princeton, all scientists, jointly prepared an opinion piece published in the Globe Saturday criticizing Summers' remarks about women in mathematics and the sciences.
"Speculation that 'innate differences' may be a significant cause of under-representation by women in science and engineering may rejuvenate old myths and reinforce negative stereotypes and biases," they wrote.
Princeton Media Relations Officer Eric Quinones wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, "As the issue continues to generate discussion on campuses and in the media, (the three presidents) felt - as scientists and university presidents - that it would be helpful to take a more forward-looking approach and focus on why it is important to encourage women to pursue careers in math, science and engineering."
Following the backlash surrounding his Jan. 14 remarks, Summers has apologized and recanted.
"Despite reports to the contrary, I did not say, and I do not believe, that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science. ... I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women," Summers wrote in a Jan. 19 letter to the Harvard community.
In the aftermath of the controversy, Summers established two task forces at Harvard to deal with issues surrounding women in mathematics and the sciences and women faculty.
But even some of the leaders of the new task forces have indicated they are not satisfied with Summers' response.
Barbara Grosz, Harvard professor of natural sciences and chair of the new Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering, criticized Summers at Tuesday's faculty meeting for refusing to release a transcript of his Jan. 14 comments, the Crimson reported.
"We cannot have honest intellectual discussion of your points and the evidence you provided for them so long as neither is accurately known," she said at the meeting.
Many Harvard professors were not satisfied with Summers' apology and, according to the Globe, see the debacle as an opportunity to evaluate what they call Summers' tarnished and embarrassing tenure as Harvard's president.
"This has been a searing afternoon for me," Summers said after the meeting, according to the Crimson.
