Summers led Harvard aggressively during his five-year tenure as president, calling out professors, departments and graduate schools he felt were underachieving, supporting math and science-related departments over others and never hesitating to express his controversial opinions.
Last March, the Arts and Sciences faculty passed a no-confidence measure against the president by a vote of 218 to 185. The vote came soon after Summers suggested that innate differences between men and women may account for some of the gender discrepancies in top scientific departments.
Summers' troubles resurfaced after William C. Kirby, the popular dean of the Arts and Sciences faculty, resigned in late January after a series of clashes with the president. Kirby and Summers fought over issues concerning the College's budget deficit and the Harvard College Curricular Review, for which Summers had been criticized for trying to exert too much power. After the dean's resignation, inside sources alleged that Summers had forced Kirby out and the faculty scheduled another no-confidence vote for the end of this month.
According to university sources, the Harvard Corporation, a six-member body with the power to fire the president, met with many professors in the past couple weeks. The Corporation determined that the schism between Summers and the faculty had crippled his ability to lead because discussions about the president's leadership style would continue to overtake other issues at faculty meetings.
Although the Corporation supported Summers after the first no-confidence vote, the board and many of the president's most loyal supporters concluded recently that Summers could no longer do his job effectively, leading him to step down.
"I have sought for the last five years to prod and challenge the University to reach for the most ambitious goals in creative ways," Summers wrote in a letter to the Harvard community. "As I leave the presidency, my greatest hope is that the University will build on the important elements of renewal that we have begun over the last several years."
Throughout his career as an economics professor, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and as president of Harvard, Summers has been known as an unapologetic academic, one who would not hesitate to promote an unpopular opinion or start an unpopular discussion if he thought the issues were valid.
Before Summers became president, his predecessor had allowed Harvard's renowned Afro-American studies department to basically control its own budget and set its own academic standards. When Summers came in, he told the Afro-American studies chairman that his department would be held to the same financial and academic standards as other departments.
The star of the Afro-American Studies department at the time was philosopher Cornel West, whose academic achievements, Summers thought, did not merit his lofty reputation. According to West, who left for Princeton because of differences with Summers, the president criticized him for his most recent academic work, a spoken-word CD, and promised to keep tabs on West's future activity.
Summers' dedication to speaking his mind, asking hard questions and demanding excellence both landed him the job as Harvard president and contributed to his downfall. Many of his qualities that were seen as admirable in a professor were seen as undiplomatic in a president.
"It may not have been an ideal match because Larry's talents have to do with questioning everything, with playing devil's advocate," Harvard economics professor Jeff Miron said. "Maybe that's not the best way for a university president to operate."
Summers resignation comes despite support from the undergraduate student body. A poll conducted by The Crimson, the Harvard student newspaper, found that 39 percent of students strongly approve or approve of the president's performance, 30 are neutral and 31 disapprove.
"Many students are very upset with the existing Core Curriculum because it is quite restrictive," Jon Cunningham, a sophomore at Harvard, said. "Many students appreciate that Summers made an effort to reform the Core, even though he wasn't very successful."
After Summers announced his resignation, the Corporation released a letter praising his achievements.
"Since his appointment five years ago, Larry Summers has served Harvard with extraordinary vision and vitality," the letter reads. "He has brought to the leadership of the University a sense of bold aspiration and initiative, a prodigious intelligence and an insistent devotion to maximizing Harvard's contributions to the realm of ideas and to the larger world."
Summers' five-year reign is the shortest of any Harvard president since the Civil War.
Dartmouth President James Wright declined to comment on the resignation, as did every other Ivy League president.
