Observing Summers
Tom Scocca has a smart
piece on the Summers presidency in this week's
New York Observer (and not just because he quotes yours truly). Scocca looks skeptically at some of the much-touted Summers "accomplishments"—Allston, the curricular review—and compares his management style to that of Howell Raines, late of the
New York Times.
Key quote: "Mr. Raines lamented 'the destructive power of a change-resistant newsroom.' What he—and Mr. Summers—overlooked was the constructive power already in place. The procedures, structures and habits of Harvard or the Times had been built up by generations of smart people, trying to figure out the best way to do their jobs. They worked."
I think Scocca's on to something: All the talk about how Summers was supposed to "shake things up" has obscured any meaningful discussion of what, exactly, needed shaking up, and whether shaking up was really the best means of effecting whatever change was required. There are lots of smart people at Harvard—not just the president.
