Taranto: The Dean Scream of Academe

James Taranto: Opinion Journal's Best of the Web

"I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part."--Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim Matheson), "Animal House," 1978

"In a sharp and unexpected rebuke of University President Lawrence H. Summers, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted yesterday that they lack confidence in his leadership."--Harvard Crimson, March 16, 2005

The 218-185 vote "was tantamount to a vote of no confidence," explains the Crimson; by a wider margin, the faculty also approved "a second motion, expressing regret for Summers' Jan. 14 remarks on women in science and certain 'aspects of the President's managerial approach.' "

As the Crimson notes, "The two non-binding motions, unique in Harvard's history, are largely symbolic gestures--only the Harvard Corporation, the University's top governing body, can force Summers to step down." In short, it was a show trial, both in procedure and in effect (that is, in the lack thereof). Fittingly, the venue for this vain display was the Loeb Drama Center.

What's the point? Blogger David Bernstein, a law professor at Virginia's George Mason University, explains:

It's pretty simple, isn't it? The far left at Harvard is extremely frustrated with political trends in the U.S. Their votes and activism against Bush were not only completely ineffectual, but they don't even have a Democratic governor in one of the most liberal states in the country. So they pick on the closest thing Harvard has to a powerful right-winger: moderate Democrat and university president Larry Summers, who becomes a stand-in for all evil conservative white men, from Bush on down. The far-left faculty finally participates in a vote that it can win, and experiences cartharsis [sic]; that'll teach the world to ignore them!

The Harvard faculty majority are acting like a china service in a bullring. Their attitude, with its toxic mix of self-pity and thuggery, is common on campus and is often characteristic of an alienated political minority. You can imagine some hysterical Harvard prof shouting, "Larry Summers is not my neighbor! Now you sit down!" But just as Howard Dean's Iowa tantrum and scream were bad for the Democrats and worse for Dean's candidacy, National Review's Stanley Kurtz argues that the latest Angry Left eruption in Cambridge is likely to prove self-destructive:

I think the vote of no confidence in Lawrence Summers is a wonderful thing. Harvard continues to discredit itself with the American public. The faculty is trapped. If Summers resigns, this extraordinary example of political correctness will come back to haunt Harvard, and the entire academy, for years. But if Summers hangs on, the faculty itself will have been humiliated--checked by the very fact of public scrutiny. Either way, Harvard is tearing itself apart. So long as the public simply writes of [sic] the academy, the mice can play. But the intense public scrutiny in this case puts the captains of political correctness into a no-win situation. Like the closely watched Susan Estrich fiasco, this battle is doing lasting damage to the cultural left. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

The Crimson reports that after enduring the faculty fit, "Summers received a round of applause from undergraduates" after delivering "a wide-ranging talk outlining his overarching vision for the future of the University":

While the crowd quizzed Summers on an array of issues, the president conducted an informal poll at last night's forum to identify students' primary concerns.

A chorus of [students] complained about the poor quality of academic advising and a lack of interaction between students and tenured professors.

When Summers asked the crowd whether "two senior faculty know you well," barely a quarter of students raised their hands.

Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, pass symbolic resolutions.