Harvard President Faces New Round Of Criticism Over Speech on Gender

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard professors seeking to oust the university's president, Lawrence Summers, are expected to press their case again today as a special faculty meeting convenes to consider a "no confidence" vote on his leadership.

Last night, Mr. Summers's future at the helm of the prestigious research institution appeared to be increasingly in doubt, as even some supporters of the economics professor and former treasury secretary publicly questioned whether he would be able to manage the school effectively once the current crisis abates.

"I think Larry has really been crippled, been hurt," said a member of the board of the Harvard Alumni Association, Dr. William Adler. "The question is from now on, can he carry out some of the agenda items?... It's a defining moment."

Several veteran professors said that under parliamentary rules, no vote was possible today on any "no confidence" motion. Such a vote could take place at another faculty meeting next month.

The mutiny against Mr. Summers follows a contentious debate over remarks he delivered last month about gender disparities in the sciences. His suggestion that differences in "intrinsic aptitude" between men and women may contribute to the relatively small number of women in most scientific fields drew a firestorm of criticism and anger from women's rights advocates.

However, Mr. Summers's supporters and opponents said yesterday that the debate among the faculty has broadened significantly and the complaints over his remarks on gender are no longer at the core of the dispute.

"The debate that triggered this is, as anyone honest would say, not the real issue," a professor of physics and a critic of Mr. Summers, Daniel Fisher, said in an interview yesterday. "It was not the straw that broke the camel's back. The camel's back was broken long ago."

Mr. Fisher said the level of anger within the faculty is so great that Mr. Summers must go. "If he does not resign and is not removed from office, the consequences for Harvard will be devastating," the physics professor said.

A poll released last night by the university's student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, found that Mr. Summers would likely survive a "no confidence" vote, even though a majority of the faculty appears to harbor serious concerns about his leadership. Of the faculty members who responded to the survey - a number that ranged from 268 to 283 depending on the question - 55% opposed calls for Mr. Summers to resign. However, a majority of similar size, 56%, also said they believed that he has tarnished Harvard's image.

Half of the faculty members surveyed said they would vote against a "no confidence" vote at the moment, while 32% said they favored such a motion. The Crimson acknowledged that its survey suffered from some flaws, chiefly that the respondents to the poll are unlikely to accurately represent the entire faculty.

A response from Mr. Summers to the survey suggested he has no plans to quit. "I recognize the strength of the concerns expressed at last week's faculty meeting. I look forward to further candid and constructive conversation at tomorrow's meeting and beyond as we work them through," he said in a statement to the Crimson.

In interviews yesterday, several critics of the university president said most of the faculty's grievances against him relate to his governance of the institution. Some of the most strident invective against Mr. Summers relates to an issue that might strike outsiders as mundane: the movement of some Harvard offices and laboratories to newly purchased land in Boston's Allston neighborhood.

A number of Mr. Summers's opponents in the current contretemps have clashed with him before over politically charged issues such as the proposal to divest the endowment of Israel-related securities. He loudly opposed such a move as veiled anti-Semitism. Mr. Summers has also angered some by hinting that he might support moves to overturn a Vietnam-era ban on military officer training on Harvard's campus.

A professor of science history, Everett Mendelsohn, who backs Harvard's divestment from Israel, said those issues are not driving the discontent towards Mr. Summers. "I heard no mention of ROTC, though my guess it may be on someone's agenda," Mr. Mendelsohn said. "Perhaps one person mentioned" the divestment debate during the last faculty meeting, he said.

Mr. Mendelsohn said some faculty members critical of Mr. Summers have cited his clash with a professor of African-American studies, Cornel West. Mr. West later decamped for Princeton.

A professor of Yiddish literature, Ruth Wisse, said that what began as a debate over Mr. Summers's remarks on women in the sciences has turned into an effort to settle old scores.

"Look up the history of all the people who are attacking Summers. There's no case I know of where there isn't another axe to grind," Ms. Wisse said.

Ms. Wisse contended some left-wing faculty members see the fight to remove Mr. Summers as a chance to refight the last presidential election. "They could not get Bush out of office. They just think this is the next best thing," she said. She said she marveled at Mr. Summers, who served for eight years in the Clinton administration, becoming a "proxy" in some eyes for Mr. Bush.

Ms. Wisse said the anti-Summers forces appeared to have the momentum, but things could still change. "We just don't know how it will play itself out if they overreach," she said.

A government professor, Samuel Huntington, said Mr. Summers's hands-on approach should be praised, not condemned. "I think he's a breath of fresh air," Mr. Huntington said. "I think he's having an effect of stirring up discussion and generating attention to issues, and overall I think it is highly positive to have a president who spends his time with students and faculty rather than with bureaucrats and donors."

The February 15 gathering at which professors expressed their dissatisfaction with Mr. Summers was a meeting of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It is only one of 10 faculties at Harvard, but it is the largest in terms of students and tenured faculty members. It is also the home to the university's undergraduate program.

A professor of economics, Claudia Goldin, said she and more than 180 other professors have signed a letter supporting Mr. Summers. However, she said some concessions were in order. "If others feel frustrated, mistakes have been made," Ms. Goldin said. "What we want is for some honest brokers to come forward and broker a deal."