![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/Larrummers.jpg\")
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. –In his five-year tenure at Harvard University,
\n President Lawrence H. Summers frequently found himself in the spotlight
\n because of rifts with faculty at the Ivy League institution.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, facing the second no-confidence vote by faculty members in
\n a year, Summers announced he would leave June 30, bringing to a close
\n the briefest tenure of any Harvard president since 1862, when Cornelius
\n Felton died after two years in office.<\/p>\n
from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n Just five years? It seemed like 50! Larry, we hardly knew ye. If there If the person is smart enough, in an academic sense (which means knowing It just wouldn’t look good for Harvard to be changing Presidents as Given Summer’s recent propensity for stepping into deep doo doo over We guess we should be happy that the World’s Greatest U has turned Actually, the Dowbrigade is thinking of throwing his hat into the ring from the CAMBRIDGE, Mass. –In his five-year tenure at Harvard University, President Lawrence H. Summers frequently found himself in the spotlight because of rifts with faculty at the Ivy League institution. Tuesday, facing the second no-confidence vote by faculty members in a … Continue reading
\n is a lesson in here somewhere it is that, yes, the President of Harvard
\n has to be a master politician, and yes, the President of Harvard has
\n to be a master fund-raiser, but first and foremost, the President of
\n Harvard has to be smarter than you and me, and smarter than all the other
\n university presidents in the land. If you try to give the job to a normally
\n smart political fund raiser, he or she is doomed to fail, if only because there are so many naturally obstreperous world-class intellects in the 02138 zip code.<\/p>\n
\n more about some obscure subject than anyone else in the world, even if
\n it is so obscure than hardly anyone else knows or cares about it), nothing
\n else matters. In order to protect the reputation of the institution,
\n Harvard has over the centuries had to keep several notable Presidents
\n under wraps, so to speak, relegated to windowless back rooms in the bowels
\n of Civil War era architectural behemoths and only brought forth on ceremonial
\n occasions, bundled in pharmacological blankets and surrounded by stout
\n Trustees to avoid embarrassing mishaps.<\/p>\n
\n frequently as, say, an upstart institution like the Federal government.
\n Why, previous Harvard President Neil Rudenstine had a complete mental
\n breakdown while in office, reduced to staring out the window of Harvard
\n Hall while playing with his peas and carrots, and was forced to take
\n a "Leave of Absence" while they got him back to the point where he could
\n sign his name again, and he still lasted 10 years.<\/p>\n
\n topics like innate vs. acquired sex differences and recruiting minorities
\n for the faculty, it is less shocking that the Harvard brain trust
\n is showing him the door than is the selection of his successor. Who even
\n knew that Derek Box was still alive? The man was named President of Harvard
\n in 1971, the year the Dowbrigade arrived on campus as a freshman. The
\n guy was ancient before WE even got kicked out the first time! James Michael
\n Curley was still Mayor of Boston! <\/p>\n
\n back the clock to the guy we will still always consider "our" Harvard President,
\n but we may have forfeited our right to criticize. After all, we
\n currently work at a Major Boston University which dismissed its President
\n the day BEFORE he was to be inaugurated, necessitating a payoff
\n of several million dollars to just go away.<\/p>\n
\n on this Harvard job. How long can Bok actually last, after all? And how hard can it be to preside over the World’s Richest School? After
\n 400 years, isn’t it time for something completely different.<\/p>\n
\n Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"