Two Cultures

Martin Peretz notes the differences among the Harvard faculties in their responses to Larry Summers’ attempts to reform the university: When Harvard hired Summers to “bring the university into modern times,” it was electrifying: “You could feel the walls of the faculty club tremble. Well, the walls of the club that serves the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), anyway. This is an important distinction. There are other faculties at Harvard – law, medicine, public health, business, et cetera – and it’s hard to find more than a handful of professors at these places offended by what Summers has done. They, in fact, have been cheering him on. So, in forcing Summers’s resignation, the FAS, in an alliance of frightened souls and hyped-up orators, has pulled off a coup – facilitated by the fact that hard scientists, true social scientists, and serious humanists lack the inclination to go to conspiratorial caucus meetings.”