Libertarian Librarian

Of course, right after I post the previous bit on faculty bias, I read this. Sigh. Larry Summers is no saint. His managerial style does seem to be off-putting. There are more issues here than just the speech at NBER. But, come on. I think Brian McGrory got it right in his January 21, 2005 Boston Globe column:

It's been more than 20 years since I roamed a college campus, but I've always assumed that the strength of the academy is its ability to encourage difficult questions, to synthesize unconventional thought, rather than rant over it.

No longer does that seem to be the case, at least in Cambridge.

I can't say I'm surprised by the 218-185 vote by the College of Arts and Sciences faculty at Harvard. But I am saddened by it, and it certainly does not seem to bode well for rooting out academia's horrendous biases and double-standards.

Labels: Oh That Ivory Tower