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Lefties Are Eating Their Own - Harvard Faculty Give Summers No-Confidence Vote
 In a sharp and unexpected rebuke to University President Lawrence H. Summers, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted that they lack confidence in his leadership this afternoon. Voting by secret ballot in a Faculty meeting at the Loeb Drama Center, 218 professors voted for the lack of confidence motion, 185 voted against it, and 18 abstained.i.e. 218 reasons why an ivy league education is becoming irrelevant. The motion, submitted by Professor of Anthropology and of African and African American Studies J. Lorand Matory '82, stated that "the Faculty lacks confidence in the leadership of Lawrence H. Summers." Matory is really saying : Summers strayed off the reservation. I thought he knew what WEbelieved. I guess he didn't. Professors also passed a milder censure of the president, which expressed regret for his Jan. 14 comments on women in science and certain "aspects of the President's managerial approach." Thay regret what he said? Then let them let their lazy socialist totalitarian asses out of Harvard and get a job teaching at Pyongyang Polytechnic. Managerial Approach? Is that what they {GAG} call it... Two hundred fifty-three professors voted for that motion, which was submitted by Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol. One hundred thirty-seven professors voted against the motion, and 18 abstained. More of the same. I revise my ressons to 253. Both motions are non-binding—only the Harvard Corporation, the University's top governing body, can force Summers to step down. At the end of the meeting, Summers asked the Faculty for reconciliation. Yeah, the inmates haven't overthrown the asylum...yet... "Let me just say that I have done my best these last two months to hear what has been said, to think hard about what has been said, and to make the appropriate adjustments, to learn from what has been said and what's been done. And I will continue to do that," Summers said. "My hope would be that this Faculty will now be in a position to move on to address the vital issues that it faces." No Chancellor Summers, they have you in thier sites as a hate object, and they need to feed thier collective ulcers. Faculty appeared surprised when the results of the vote affirming Matory's motion were read during the meeting. And of seven professors—including Matory—approached by The Crimson after the meeting, all said they were surprised that the lack of confidence motion passed. "Honestly, I did not think that the resolution would achieve more than one-third of the votes," Matory said. BS! You all knw that if you get enough idiots in one room, and all kinds of things can happen. Sociology Department Chair Mary C. Waters said that the vote indicates that faculty discontent is more widespread than most professors had suspected. "I don't think any of us expected this to pass. I had no idea that so many faculty supported it," she said after the meeting. Leaving the meeting, some professors said that they do not think Summers will step down from his post. Prof Waters really is saying: I though we could just get by attracting the news media and let them carry the ball. We've gone too far, and now, everybody will hate us, and think we are nothing but a bunch of kooks. We are, but we don't want anyone to think so... "My guess is that President Summers will not resign," said Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn. But Matory said after the meeting that Summers should step down of his own accord. "There is no noble alternative for him but resignation," Matory said. Mallory, full of venom, and newfound power, wants to take the oldest continually operating school of higher education in the country, and run it into the ground. Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith L. Ryan said after the meeting that she thinks the votes will allow the Faculty to exercise powers of self-governance. "I think this also gives us a mandate to do more," said Ryan, noting in particular that the Faculty Council—the 18-member governing board of the FAS of which she is a member—will now wield a greater amount of power. {GAG} Professor of Economics Edward L. Glaeser said that Summers is prepared to change his leadership style to accommodate the Faculty. "I have every confidence that the president has heard the Faculty and that he takes this very seriously," Glaeser said. Talk about a coup d'Etat... Boycott Harvard. Over 550 people filed into the Loeb auditorium this afternoon, sitting in the aisles when all the 556 seats were taken. The line to get in spilled out onto Brattle Street, intermingling with the press on hand and curious onlookers. Shortly after the meeting began at 4:00 p.m., Matory introduced his motion to a completely silent audience. "If we do not speak clearly, the Corporation and public will believe that we are content," he said. But lobotomy bait, you look like fools to everyone outside academia and the DNC.... Then, East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department Chair Philip A. Kuhn introduced a motion to table Matory's motion indefinitely. "The motion just proposed is needlessly divisive," he said. "What we need at this point in not division but cohesion. We need not extremes, but middle ground that will let us go forward." Kuhn said he wished for Faculty members to instead turn out in large numbers for discussion of the curricular review and other issues. Professor Kuhn... Look out for long knives in the night... Professors debated both motions until approximately 5 p.m., when the Faculty rejected Kuhn's motion to table by a close voice vote. Faculty members debated Matory's motion further before voting on it by secret ballot at 5:12 p.m. Secret ballot, the cover of darkness in this case, but an opportunity to lay open the true state of the academic situation there. What a tragedy. While the votes were counted, Skocpol presented her motion and the Faculty debated it, focusing on whether Summers' critics were stifling academic freedom and submitting to political correctness. They are. They don't care. As the meeting approached its close, the result of Matory's motion was announced. Summers was stoic as the FAS docket committee began to read the numbers, but his expression changed to one of surprise and disappointment once the results had been announced. Faculty also seemed startled, as the room erupted into a series of private conversations. Professors then voted on Skocpol's motion. While the votes on Skocpol's motion were counted, professors milled about the room and spoke with each other. We got him, we got him, nyaah, nyaah, nyaah.... At a table on stage, Summers and Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby briefly conferred but largely remained silent. Though Summers traditionally chairs Faculty meetings, he asked Kirby to lead today's meeting. Kirby also led the Feb. 22 continuation of the Faculty's last full meeting. Harvard, now a satellite campus of Pyongyang U. Posted by: BigEd 2005-03-16 |
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