Everybody, both right-wing nutbars and left-wing zealots, seems to have decided that Harvard named its first woman president to mollify people who were offended by Larry Summers’ sexist remarks two years ago. Says the National Organization of Women:
NOW is so pleased that Harvard will finally have a female president — and it has only taken them 371 years. Larry Summers, we couldn’t have done it without you.
And now here’s one of her critics, who actually wrote a whole book about the “struggle for the soul of” Harvard and convinced a major publisher to publish it, quoted in the New York Times:
“The real import of this choice is that it is a cautious pick, which seems targeted at healing the wounds of the Summers years and restoring Harvard’s momentum as quickly as possible,” said Richard Bradley, who wrote “Harvard Rules: The Struggle for the Soul of the World’s Most Powerful University” (HarperCollins, 2005).
I know absolutely nothing about Professor Drew Gilpin Faust, except that she has a cool name and she’s a respected Civil War historian. Some of her comments about celebrating people from that era, but not uncritically, have already been taken out of context by nutbars. Does Dr. Faust have the ability to run a major university? No clue.
But let’s just say everybody’s right and Harvard is making this Faustian bargain to get past the Summers controversy. If that’s the case, then aren’t they sort of barking up the wrong branch? Shouldn’t they be, I dunno, hiring more women science professors and giving them tenure? Giving women more fellowships and opportunities to present their work? Encouraging both men and women to mentor talented female grad students? Has Harvard made any substantive progress in those areas since Summers?
I find it disturbing that no one is talking about her qualifications. Once again, a successful woman is being denied her success by turning her into a token.
NOW, shame on you!
“No clue.” Projection happens.
I wonder what the qualifications of previous Harvard presidents were before they assumed the post. Anyway, for all of Larry Summers’s intellectual brilliance and his experience in economics posts, his political skills were clearly sub-par for running Harvard.
And the Wikipedia entry for Neil Rudenstine, Summers’s predecessor as Harvard president, characterized his tenure this way:
[Rudenstine] was known as a very mild-mannered president, supporting the arts and humanities and generally avoiding internal controversy, usually taking a hands-off approach to leading the university (all in sharp contrast to his successor, Larry Summers).
So it seems that Harvard has had different types of presidents before. And it’s not like a Harvard president has to be a colorful mega-personality.
Another fun fact about Drew… she’s an alumna of Bryn Mawr College (Class of 1968) and a member of the College’s Board of Trustees. She was on campus yesterday but had to leave… one would assume to be officially selected tomorrow!
As we’d say at Bryn Mawr, “Anassa Kata” Drew!