Larry Summers’ diversity grovel fails
Last year we wrote that Harvard ought to fire Larry Summers for acting like a girl. We noted with amusement Heather MacDonald’s piece (Harvard’s Diversity Grovel) in City Journal about the university’s egregious waste of $50 million to steal the Marie Curies from every other college in the country. Now we read this in the WSJ:
Members of Harvard University’s governing board are mulling whether President Lawrence Summers should step down before a scheduled Feb. 28 faculty vote on a motion of no-confidence in his leadership, say people familiar with the matter. These people say members of the board, known as the Harvard Corporation, have become increasingly concerned that continued faculty discontent with Mr. Summers, a former U.S. treasury secretary, is hurting the university. Mr. Summers, who took over as president in 2001, has alienated some faculty members with a brusque management style and sometimes-outspoken views.
It may be more fun to be a conservative than a liberal. Saying what you think is much more enjoyable than pandering to the most easily offended in your audience. Moreover, there is often no reward retracting and revising and denying what you believe. Summers tried that and is getting fired anyway, without the pleasure and self-respect of going out with his boots on.