Ivy League Secrets
Readers of
Harvard Rules will note that one of the book's themes is that, although ostensibly a university committed to open minds, free speech, and
veritas, Harvard often prefers secrecy. Try to find out what its Corporation discusses...where its grant money comes from...how its grant money gets spent...try to get an honest answer from its press office, or from one of the countless press secretaries scattered around the university. You won't. At least, not without a hell of a lot of digging.
Now David Burdick, a columnist for the Daily Pennsylvanian,
points out that this penchant for secrecy isn't limited to Harvard, but crops up elsewhere in the Ivy League, particularly the Council of Ivy League Presidents.
In a very smart column, Burdick writes about the council's annual meeting, and the fact that the eight presidents involved refuse to say a word about what was discussed. He's particularly concerned about athletic policy, where there are a number of pressing issues (that I'm not very familiar with).
My favorite section:
<
Ironically, it would be hard to find a group as well-versed in open debate of ideas as the Ivy presidents.
Columbia president Lee Bollinger has written an entire book about "free speech in the modern era."
James Wright, the president of Dartmouth, wrote a 300-plus page book on political dissent -- and that only focused on dissent in late 19th Century Colorado.
Who could forget Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who has taken more heat than anyone this year for his public debate of controversial ideas?
And of course there's Gutmann, who seems to make sure that the word
democracy appears in the title of everything she writes.>>
It's a classic story: thinkers who promote openness until they actually come to power, when they decide that the free flow of information is, well, a pain in the ass....
