Questions Answers I M Going To Be Doing A Lot Of Listening

NEWSWEEK: You’ve never run a university before and don’t have very much experience in academic administration. Do you have any concerns about that?

Lawrence H. Summers: I’m going to be doing a lot of listening in the next few months and consulting very widely, but there’s an enormous wealth of experience in academic administration and an enormous amount of knowledge within the Harvard community that I look forward to drawing on. I hope there will be opportunities to provide leadership in pursuing values that are very widely shared within the community.

Was this a job you might have said one day you wanted?

Well, I think for anyone in intellectual life leadership of a great university is something one thinks could conceivably happen. I’m very honored to have been approached–but it’s certainly never anything I planned for.

When the job was offered to you, how long did you take to consider it? What was your biggest misgiving?

I thought very carefully about it, I wanted to think through very carefully whether I felt that I would be able to support a great institution in a way that would enable it to grow stronger, but I accepted this challenge with great eagerness.

I’ve heard that you actually mulled this job decision over for about a week. Is that right? Can you tell us anything about your thought process?

I did mull it over for some time. I don’t want to get into the specifics. Harvard’s only had 27 presidents in more than 350 years, so I thought it was only responsible to think through very carefully whether this was right for me and whether I thought it would be right for Harvard.

You’ve already met with a group of the student leadership. You also had a small protest at the press conference announcing your appointment and a slightly larger one the next day. Do you think there’s a general receptivity among the students to your appointment?

I had a terrific meeting with the Undergraduate Council. I thought it was very warm, I felt that I was looking forward to working with them, I think they felt that they were looking forward to working with me. We discussed what the students wanted to get out of their Harvard experience, we discussed interactions with faculty members, they asked me some questions, I asked them some questions. It really made me feel like I was back at home. It was a great meeting.

How is the role of the university president changing?

Well, I hope that the role of the university president is determined by the role of the university, and I think that Harvard has remarkable opportunities at this moment. We live in an era when knowledge has never been more important. We live in an era when there’s special opportunities for progress and a continuing stream of breakthroughs in fields that didn’t even exist a decade ago, like computational biology, like techniques and new approaches to history, to ethics. We live in a moment when Harvard is very fortunate in its resource base, in the land it has acquired for expansion, and we live in an era where increasingly it’s the case that the two central missions of the university, teaching young people and producing new ideas, are the two things more important to the future of the world.

A lot of presidents have complained about having to devote too much time to fund-raising. Is that a concern for you?

Look, I think there’s nothing wrong and an enormous amount right with assuring the resources are there to finance teaching, to finance research. I think this is a particularly attractive time given the success in mobilizing resources.

What is the most significant thing you personally bring to the university?

I hope I will bring a broad curiosity and eagerness to discuss, to listen and to work with members of a community that has enormous meaning for me. To help people carry out their dreams, to make a difference for their curiosity and for their teaching and through their learning. And that’s the spirit in which I will be undertaking this task.

Do you consider your government service to be an asset to your presidency?

I think in government I learned some things about management, I learned some things about leadership, I learned some things about forming consensus. Because of the nature of the work I did in government, I learned some things about the global system, and I hope all of that will be helpful. But what’s most important I think at Harvard is intellectual leadership. And that what I hope, drawing on all of my experiences, to be able to provide.

Since you mentioned global, to what extent are you interested in enhancing Harvard’s global reach? And are you concerned about a conflict between the university as a global institution Harvard’s traditional American identity and personality?

Look, I think the combination of the broad forces that are driving globalization, driving technological innovation, provide great opportunity to extend excellence. But the challenge will be to extend excellence without diluting excellence.

Your predecessor has been a pretty staunch defender of affirmative action at a time where it is under attack at many universities, and certainly in the society at large. Could you tell us your views and where you think Harvard should be on that issue?

In all of the jobs that I’ve had I’ve been very much committed to diversity. It seems to me that if one desires excellence one has to cast a net as broadly as possible to ensure and assure excellence.

That seems to be a consistent theme at not only Harvard but other major universities, concern about undergraduate education. Can you speak a little more about your views on that?

I don’t want to speak much, because I’m going to be doing a lot of listening. I do believe from my own experience, both as a student and a teacher, that there’s really no substitute for direct interaction between students and faculty. We need to work toward a day when a much larger fraction of students can feel more satisfied with the quantity and quality of the interactions they have with faculty.

What about the flip side: a lot of universities are doing more experimentation with the Internet, and less intimate interaction.

Well I think there’s a role for that kind of thing, but the challenge will be to find ways of extending excellence without diluting excellence.

Is there a role for that kind of thing at Harvard?

That’s not something I’ve got a view on at this point.

Recently a Harvard professor made news complaining about grade inflation. Do things like that concern you when you hear that standards are being eroded?

I’ve seen the stories, but I just don’t know enough to have a view.

Are there any implications, as you take over Harvard, in the overall economic slump for the university right now that particularly concern you?

I think the university is in a good financial position, from what I’m able to understand at this point. We’ll have to see how things evolve.

On a personal note, I’m kind of curious. I hear you’re quite a tennis player. There are rumors that your played Ilie Nastase, that you whooped him in a set. Is this true?

Well I think Nastase was probably playing client tennis in the hope of helping Romania’s negotiations with the IMF. But I play a lot better that you’d expect me to looking at me.