Harvard Faculty Votes to Censure University President

哈佛大学全体教员投票责难校长

Several months since Harvard University President Lawrence Summers made a remark he would deeply regret.

At a meeting of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Mr. Summers suggested that one reason women have fewer top jobs in the sciences might be due to in his words "it was the intrinsic difference between men and women."

That comment set off a storm of protest at Harvard -- and the national news media ，in which a majority opposed Mr. Summers' continued leadership of the nation's oldest educational institution.

Mr. Summers has repeatedly apologized for his remark. In a letter to the faculty following the incident, he wrote that the comment was speculative and perhaps all wrong. But that did not stop the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- the largest faculty group on campus -- from pressing ahead with its vote of no confidence. The Tuesday vote was the first of its kind in Harvard's 369-year history.

The resolution simply read, "The faculty lacks confidence with the leadership of Lawrence H. Summers."

Following the 218-185 vote, Mr. Summers addressed a group of protesters at Harvard.

Mr. Summers: As I said to the faculty, I have tried these last couple of months to listen carefully to all that has been said, to learn from it and to move forward. And that is what I will do.

Mr. Summer's comments on women have sharply divided the faculty. Literature professor Ruth Wisse says academic freedom of speech is on trial. She says Mr. Summers has the right -- like any citizen -- to express his opinions.

Ruth Wisse: Astonishingly, the President of the University feels inhibited now from saying anything about one of the issues which is in fact one of the most important issues that we face, and that is, what is going to be the role of women.

Harvard history professor Everett Mendelson says the debate over Mr. Summers' remarks is not a referendum on academic freedom. Rather it reflects the faculty's problems with Mr. Summers - formerly Secretary Treasury under Bill Clinton -- ever since Mr. Summers took the job at Harvard three years ago.

Everett Mendelson: At the time, coming out of government, he had a rough time in Washington. We had been warned. As one columnist put it in the Chronicle of Higher Education…'Harvard was in for a rough ride.' What we have watched over these three and one half years are a series of mistakes in governance, in management, not only style, but management competence.

Mr. Mendelson said that common culminated with the remark in January about women.

Mr. Mendelson: I am saying that President Summers raised a storm because he addressed an issue in a careless and unknowledgeable way. Let's be very frank. For the past three years during his presidency, the percentage of women receiving tenure at Harvard across the board has declined.

The vote against Mr. Summers -- while symbolic -- carries no power. The decision to fire Mr. Summers would have to come from Harvard's corporate board, which has issued a press release saying that it fully supports the University president.

I am Rosanne Skirble.

注释:

National Bureau of Economic Research 美国国家经济研究署

speculative [5spekjulEtiv] adj. 投机的

Faculty of Arts and Sciences 文理学院

on campus 在校内

academic freedom 学术自由

referendum [7refE5rendEm] n. 投票表决

a series of 一连串的

percentage [pE5sentidV] n. 百分数

vote against 投票反对