HARVARD RADICAL
James Traub has an engaging profile of Harvard’s Larry Summers, who despite his Clinton Administration ties has become the Weekly Standard’s ”favorite university president.” He gained a lot of notoriety for his clash with Cornel West and the Afro-American studies department but his agenda is quite far-reaching and ambitious. Ultimately, he wants to make the academy understand that it is part of the society at large and to become more engaged in providing service to that society at the expense of the provincial interests that tned to dominate elite institutions. His campaign to make the curriculum more scientific and empirical, if successful, will likely transform higher education as we know if, given Harvard’s status.
