CALLING DALE CARNEGIE? Faculty members in Harvard University’s ethnic-studies programs have choice words for the management style of their new president. Polite ones call it “bureaucratic.” Others say “disastrous” or “outrageous.”
Whatever the word of choice, the result has been a mess. In six months on the job, Lawrence H. Summers has riled professors of African-American and Latino studies, prompting some of them to threaten to leave. He has also drawn criticism from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, and been forced to defend his commitment to diversity.
“No leader of a major cultural institution can afford to give the impression that he is insensitive to ethnic issues,” says John H. Coatsworth, director of Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Mr. Summers insists that he is committed to diversity. “I believe it is essential for us to maintain that commitment, working to create an ever more open and inclusive environment that draws on the widest possible range of talents,” he said in a written statement.
Critics say Mr. Summers has left a different impression in a series of incidents. In a meeting last summer with members of the Afro-American-studies department, Mr. Summers reportedly declined to voice strong support for affirmative action.
A second dispute, which was first reported last month in The Boston Globe, began after a meeting in which Mr. Summers criticized Cornel West, a professor of Afro-American studies, for spending too much time on such pursuits as a rap-music CD at the expense of scholarship and for his political work on behalf of Mr. Sharpton.
Mr. West has taken a leave of absence, partly for health reasons, and is considering an offer to return to Princeton University, where he taught until 1994. Some faculty members say that Mr. West will leave unless Mr. Summers apologizes, which he has not done.
Two of the department’s other notable names, K. Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., its chairman, are thinking of going with him, although neither has yet received a formal offer from Princeton. “We would very much like to see the current faculty stay at Harvard,” Mr. Summers said in his written statement.
Mr. Gates agreed that, in the best of all worlds, the department would remain intact. “It is a matter, first and foremost, about academic freedom, but it is a matter internal to Harvard, and every effort is being made to resolve this situation amicably,” he said in an interview.
Professors in Latino studies are also peeved at the president. In July, 12 professors sent Mr. Summers a proposal for a $2-million Latino-studies center. Mr. Summers rejected both that and a later, scaled-down version, saying that he was concerned about Harvard’s proliferation of interdisciplinary centers and programs.
Some professors say Mr. Summers’s problem is not the sincerity of his commitment to diversity but his brusque way of communicating.
Mr. Summers, an economist and former treasury secretary, did not directly inform proponents of the Latino-studies center that he was denying them funds, nor did he discuss the merits of the proposal when he rejected it. “He’s trying to manage this like a federal department, but a university doesn’t work that way,” says one professor.
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THE MLA’S NEW CEO: Rosemary G. Feal knows what she’s up against.
As the incoming executive director of the Modern Language Association, Ms. Feal will have to deal with, among other issues, bitter complaints from new Ph.D.'s about the tight job market. “Employment is a primary challenge,” says Ms. Feal. “The MLA has to do what it can to encourage institutions to change their practices.” She adds that it’s “too early” to discuss what actions she might take.
The selection of Ms. Feal, 46, was announced at the MLA’s annual meeting last month in New Orleans. She will succeed Phyllis Franklin, who plans to retire this summer. Ms. Franklin has been director since 1985.
Ms. Feal, a professor of Spanish and chairwoman of the department of modern languages and literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo, has been a member of the Delegate Assembly, the MLA’s governing body, since 1988.
The appointment will require the new president to put her own scholarship, on Latin American literature, on the back burner, but Ms. Feal has no mixed feelings: “I’m 100 percent positive about taking this on.”
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