So that’s it. Lawrence Summers is to step down at the end of the academic year as president of Harvard University, as reported in Reuters and The Washington Post.
Obviously, the opposition against Larry Summers was not just that he blasphemed the prophet about sacred scripture. No it was not just about innate abilities of men and women to do science (or to want to do science).
Nor was it just that Summers apparently eased out “the arts and sciences dean William Kirby, on January 27,” deepening opposition to him in the faculty.
No it probably goes deeper than that, and no doubt we will find out about the real reason in the next days and months.
No doubt it will come down to out-and-out opposition in the faculty to taking orders from anyone.
It’s not just Harvard. The big gorilla in the room in America is the question of the entire non-profit sector, from government to foundations to universities. Unlike evil corporations, the non-profit sector is run by its employees for their benefit. And there is no effective way to reform it.
Our government is essentially unreformed since the 1930s. Our schools and universities are unreformed since the turn of the twentieth century. Our foundations are unreformed for decades.
That means that when reform comes, as it will, as it must, it is going to be painful. That is what happens when the incumbents have the power to stop change.
And it won’t be painful just for the proud and the powerful who have run the non-profit sector for so long for their own benefit. We’ll all end up paying the price. The proud and the powerful will see to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment