Mestee Blogger

Last month, Harvard President Larry Summers attended an economic conference at which the question was posed to the panel: "Why aren't women better-represented in science and engineering positions at top universities?". Mr. Summers responded that perhaps it was a matter of women not having the aptitude or even interest in those particular fields, though he did not assert that this was true. Cue outrage. Students and faculty members alike expressed their anger through demonstrations. In addition to various protests, a "lack of confidence" motion was made, with a vote to be held to decide whether or not the faculty felt that they could not be confident in Summers as a leader.

The vote was held yesterday and the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted 218-185 to approve the "lack of confidence" motion. The vote is largely symbolic and does not mean that Summers will be terminated, but it does mean that there will be serious pressure to resign.

According to J. Lorand Matory, the professor who submitted the motion,"There is no noble alternative to resignation." It is difficult to say whether this is an issue which is truly upsetting to many students and faculty members or just a power play to oust a man who has, to this point, been a fairly controversial leader.

I find it difficult to fault him for a question that clearly seemed intended to provoke a response, possibly leading to an exchange of ideas, which is typically how we learn from each other. Unfortunately, some people had a knee-jerk reaction and immediately became upset once they sensed that some people could potentially be offended. They reacted so quickly, in fact, that they didn't bother to listen to or read the statement which immediately followed his controversial remarks: "I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong." Huh. It's surprising that this statement didn't get quite as much press.

I find political correctness to be thoroughly annoying. The political correctness that is intended to avoid making people feel bad about themselves, as silly as it can sometimes be, is fine. However, when basic truths are ignored and replaced with the way people wish they were, I can't take it. We are all different. Some kinds of people are naturally good at some things and some kinds of people are good at others. Yes, I believe men and women of all races should have the same rights, but that doesn't mean that, well, Mr. Summers may have put it best:

"The data will, I am confident, reveal that Catholics are substantially underrepresented in investment banking ... That white men are very substantially underrepresented in the National Basketball Association; and that Jews are very substantially underrepresented in farming and in agriculture."

Ahhhh! He mentioned religions and races! He suggested that, for whatever reason, some of them seem to be tied to certain activities! Well, would you tend to disagree with any of these statements? Quick - name your favorite white player on the Celtics! Did you say Raef LaFrentz? You probably did, because he's the only one.

I'm not trying to spark any controversy myself, I'm just trying to say that I think Larry Summers got a raw deal. If Harvard replaces him with a run-of-the-mill stiff who only says what people want to hear, then that's what they deserve. After all, if your leader is simply out to maintain the status quo, where are they really leading you?

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If that was entirely too serious for you, read the new Onion or have fun feeding people's names into the Internet Anagram Server. Brian Raymond Adams can be rearranged into "A dim bandana, Mr. Rosy" or without my middle name "I'm a sand bar." Feel free to share your favorites.
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