And this matters to us because...?
Alongside Andrew's very on-top-of-it updating, I'd like to ask all of you some more wishy-washy questions. Why you think the average Harvard student should care about Summers resigning, why people do care, or why they don't? Apart from the peripheral (or perhaps not-so-peripheral) effects of Summers on the general Harvard image, I'm inclined to feel that there really won't be any real, immediate consequences on Joe Schmoe's day-to-day Harvard experience, but should there be? Should the students have a say in who sits in that Mass Hall office next fall? Or would that just be an extension of what some are suggesting is an undue power/influence that FAS has shown over the presidency of the entire University?
posted by deborah ho @ 10:19 PM
2 Comments:
Without question, students should care about what happened today.
It affects students when the review of their curriculum has come to a dead halt. Like him or not, Summers was not able to reconcile his problems with the faculty in order to focus on this endeavor.
It affects students when the President's Office does - or does not - devote funds to improving the undergraduate experience at Harvard. Will the next President make it his or her effort to set funds aside for a student center? For more campus-wide programming, like at other schools? For improved financial aid packages? (again, like him or not, Summers was great with his financial aid initiative)
Students should certainly be a part of the selection of the next President of this university to make sure that the next person to sit in "that Mass Hall office" is an advocate for their interests.
I sort of covered this topic already, Deb.
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