| slab |
Posted
on 28-Apr-02 11:47 PM
Relentless and Freewheeling
Mr. Larry Summers has been making waves at Harvard since he arrived
as a graduate student in economics in 1975 and quickly
established a reputation as a relentless, if unkempt and
cocky, researcher. His freewheeling style engendered warm
relations with those who studied with him. When he earned his
doctorate in 1982, he was immediately offered tenure at
Harvard. He was 28, one of the youngest people to ever be
given tenure there.
He left Harvard for Washington in 1991, and rose through
positions at the World Bank and in the Clinton administration
to become secretary of the treasury. He was enshrined on the
cover of Time magazine -- next to his predecessor at Treasury,
Robert Rubin, and the Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan
-- with the headline "The Committee to Save the World." He was
considered such a brilliant young scholar that more than one
person has suggested that if he hadn't gotten into government
and administration, he would have won a Nobel by now.
An 'Activist' President
Despite all of his experience, he wasn't a conventional choice
to become president. He had never been a college
administrator, and he forced the search committee to wrestle
with its decision by signaling from the beginning that he
would be from a different mold.
"I made it clear during the search that while recognizing the
role of fund raising and ceremonial leadership, I saw academic
policy and intellectual leadership as central to the role of
the president," says Mr. Summers.
In interviews, he calls himself an "activist," a "questioner"
unwilling to accept the status quo. His style is often
interpreted as confrontational. Mr. Summers says it is
misunderstood.
He makes it clear that as far as he is concerned, nothing and
no one is above questioning.
"Challenging assumptions and raising questions is really what
scholarship is all about," says Mr. Summers. "Skepticism is
the most important thing that comes out of education, and the
willingness to raise questions and the questioning of
subjective dogma is central to intellectual life, and central
to the contribution that intellectual life makes. So my
approach here, and my approach in other things, is to ask
questions. But asking questions is just that. Asking questions
isn't necessarily being critical."
Asking questions and engaging in debates is the way that Mr.
Summers educates himself, say those who have worked with him
at Harvard and in government. One said he lacks the "veneer"
typical of someone in a powerful position who must deal with
others.
So, if Mr. Summers cuts off a presentation before it is half
over, so be it. If he asks someone arguing a position, "OK,
now tell me what the best argument is against your position,"
he does it, without apology. If he dispenses with a meeting's
prologue, and says, "Tell me: What's the bottom line?," then
you roll with it.
Mr. Summers wants and expects others to argue as passionately
as he does. It is a byproduct, perhaps, of growing up the son
of two economics professors, and the nephew of two others who
won Nobel prizes in economics, Paul A. Samuelson and Kenneth
J. Arrow. It was an atmosphere in which the best argument won.
"When I first met him, I misread him to be devaluing the
arguments being made to him," says Daniel K. Tarullo, a former
White House economics adviser and now a law professor at
Georgetown University. "After getting to know him, I realized
he was just gathering information. I think people misapprehend
the style by which he tests himself." However, Mr. Summers has
a curious inability at times to understand how he is coming
off. He seems pained by his failure to patch things up with
Mr. West, like a giant that cannot understand why an egg broke
when all he was trying to do was keep it warm.
Pacing and Answering Questions
On the day he is guest lecturer in the economics class, Mr.
Summers paces the stage of the lecture hall, stick of chalk in
hand, trying to draw responses out of an apathetic mix of
students. The black-and-white portraits of 31 former Harvard
professors from the '50s and '60s stare down from a wall.
In the course of a 90-minute lecture, without notes, he will
spill out a series of what seem to be disconnected analogies
and anecdotes. He discusses the positives and negatives of
short-term bonds, why he opposes fixed exchange rates, and why
the bank buildings are always the spiffiest structures in
small towns. His theme: that momentum is sustained in a
marketplace not just by a succession of good news, but also by
the appearance of confidence.
Many Harvard watchers are surprised by the number of
controversies Mr. Summers has set off in such a short time,
and some are worried about the impact on the university.
"A lot of alums I have talked to are ready for some good
press," says Timothy P. McCarthy, a lecturer in history and
literature as well as a permanent alumni representative of the
Harvard College Class of 1993. "They are tired of the bad
press. A lot of that bad press is about Larry Summers. I don't
think he is the kind of person who is equipped to deal with
all of the touchy, delicate issues that come up here. I don't
think he can really succeed here unless he learns how to
handle those things."
Some other faculty members, though, are completely satisfied
with Mr. Summers, and his approach.
"He does ask direct questions. They are intelligent questions.
They are the right questions," says Richard P. Chait, a
professor of higher education in the Graduate School of
Education, who has met with the president. "What I see is that
he thinks like the economist he is. He is willing to take some
risks and make trade-offs."
Many alumni also are happy with Mr. Summers. At a recent
fund-raising event for Harvard's library system, an elderly
potential donor stood and said, "I want to congratulate you on
restoring the bully pulpit to the Harvard presidency." The
comment was met with applause.
More:
http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i33/33a02901.htm
|
