While the President of Harvard is traditionally a very weak position. The only great power is that she can turn down people up for tenure, even if Departments and Faculties approve of such an individual. However, Larry Summers sought to indirectly increase the power of the President. Such was his involvement in the Allston campaign, as well as other matters. What appears here is Summers intervening in the financial matters.
Drew Faust in some sense has returned to a more modest role of President and central administration. She is a rather colorless figure who writes great books on the Civil War, and supports the arts, something Summers failed to do. However, the University is in crisis and needs strong leadership.
The largest problem arises in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). Already the infighting has started. Science Faculty are annoyed that they do not have their labs in Allston. Humanities faculty members, sort of the largest group against Summers who in many ways showed disdain for them, want to have greater say over the direction of the University. The students have lost hot breakfast and will likely see more cutbacks in the fabled House system that creates smaller communities.
What really needs to happen is that the faculty itself must change with the changing situation. Their life of relative comfort will not stay the same. They may have to see freezes in their incomes as well. Faust and FAS Dean Smith should help facilitate and solve a collective action problem. And perhaps, the University might need to undergo a more radical corporate change.
Personally I am not in the administration. I am just a person who has had ties to the venerable institution (too many) and would not want to see it fail. For all the hatred that the University inspired, it has done good as well. This institution is probably one of the few in the U.S. that is admired around the world. Its collapse would likely weaken soft power.
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