Harvard Presidency Least Popular Job Since Roadkill Disposal Technician
It's pretty much a rule that denying interest in being president is a prerequisite to becoming one. Or at least being cheeky, mysterious, and shamelessly disingenuous about it. But even by presidential search standards, the candidates in the search for Harvard's next commander-in-chief seem to be protesting too much. Categorical denials so extreme you'd think these people were swearing over a shoulder-high stack of Bibles piled on top of their mother's grave:
"I am absolutely committed to being Penn's president, and I am not interested in any other presidency." -- Penn President Amy Gutmann
"I can tell you that that he is very happy at Tufts and has no desire to leave." -- Spokesperson for Tufts President Lawrence Bacow
"She is focused on being chancellor of Syracuse." -- Spokesman for Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor, stressing "repeatedly" that Cantor is not interested in the position
"I look forward to welcoming that person as a fellow president." -- Brown President Ruth Simmons, referring to the future Harvard prez
"President Tilghman has consistently said she believes she has the best job in academia." -- Spokeswomanfor Princeton President Shirley Tilghman
"There is no circumstance I can imagine under which I won't continue to be here at Columbia for many years to come." -- Columbia President Lee Bollinger, through a spokesperson
"I am quite confident that she has no interest at this time." -- Yale President Richard Levin, about former Yale Provost and Harvard presidential candidate Alison Richard
"I have no intention or desire to leave my current position, which I believe is the best position in higher education." -- Stanford Provost John Etchemendy
"What a foolish question. I already have a great job." -- Duke President Richard Broadhead
Ask a foolish question, get a toolish answer. These people respond like they'd just been asked to run the Dubuque Community College Media Studies program. Everyone knows they'd give their left tassle to reign over Harvard. Elena Kagan, please just declare yourself successor already and spare us the charade.
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January 25th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I fail to see the attraction of having to run the most anal school in the country. That which we call Harvard, by any other name would smell as bad…
January 25th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
So, does anyone know whom you e-mail to apply for this job? I think I could do a pretty bang-up job at Harvard.
Interviewer: “So, sir, are women worse at science and math than men?”
Me: “No, they are not.”
See? I would rock that job!
January 25th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
One of these jobs is not like the others: The chancellor of SYRACUSE says she’d pass up the Harvard presidency? Sure.
January 25th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
What an absurd idea that anyone, after the last year, is considering Richard Brodhead to be president of Harvard. He was popular among students at Yale, but people in the know knew he was a royal asshole, and he’s shown himself to be allergic to leadership at Duke. (Although, to be fair, he learned from the master of fear of leadership, Rick Levin.) It’s well known that Dick lusted after Rick’s job and gave up and went to Duke only when it became clear that Rick wasn’t leaving anytime soon (and has the Corporation wrapped around his finger, so they aren’t going to force him out, alas). Of course now, he’s bulloxed it up at Duke so badly–pissing off the left and the right, with calls on the right for his head (sometimes literally!) and an exodus of black faculty on the left–that he’ll never get another job. Poor man should have stuck to Charles Chesnutt.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Just ask Mickey Mouse, the rodent will blend into the scene and general theme at Harvard. You see what I mean? So the major Ivy League schools provided their research that says statically men are better at math than women. Is this correct Mr. Mouse? Why certainly not. Women are better, just my girlfriend Minnie Mouse. She wears the pants in the relationship. Whatever she says is truth.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Jacob is (unfortunately, because I thought he was nice) about Broadhead. If I were him, I would kill to move away from Duke — not just because of the scandal, but because of the school itself, which I’m pretty sure is more committed to defending a bunch of lacrosse douchebags than any facet of undergraduate education. Unfortunately, if you can’t handle Duke …
TWO of these jobs are not like the others.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I think your elena kagan prediction is in the right direction, but I wonder if she’s seen as too much a summers’ appointment…I wouldn’t count out drew faust (dean of radcliffe). I think its an even match.
It’s also terrifying how no one has ANY idea who it’s going to be. This committee should control nuclear launch codes…we all know the candidates, but we have no idea where they’re going with it!
January 25th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
I would offer my sincerest sympathies to any woman who took the job, Kagan or Faust or otherwise, because she’s sure to step into a shitstorm. While a man taking the position mostly has to just not be a huge tool to win initial approval, a woman will have to convince everyone she didn’t get the job just to prove not everyone at Harvard thinks the womenfolk are inferior.
(Also, Drake, if that’s really you- is fun czar really so boring that you spend all your time posting here now? Sad, I think…)
January 26th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I don’t agree that a woman will have such crazy hurdles to leap over regarding proving herself: I think that Faust and Kagan would both be able to jump right in due to their current appointments. A random female faculty member, well that would definitely support your point.
And F-off eagle! :) I’m not still at work at 10:22 at night! The czar-ship isn’t boring at all, I just like ivygate. (And, more accurately, its intercession and there’s NOTHING TO DO cause NO ONE IS HERE.)
January 26th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
(Oh, right, I forgot about intersession, because now I have a month off between classes. Ha!)
I suppose Faust or Kagan would get a little more street cred, sure, but I still think there’d be people assuming a large part of their appointment was due to bein grrlz.
But more to the heart of the post–is it Really that surprising so many already successful people don’t want to step into a position that will be so intensely scrutinized, and probably wildly unpleasant?
January 26th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I just want everybody to know that I am, in fact, a candidate for the job. After you see my movie, you’ll know I’m the right person for it, too.
January 29th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Maybe we can give Harvard James Wright. If only it was that easy to get rid of that politically correct diversity-touting, light weight. Notice that no one asked if he was interested in the job.
January 30th, 2007 at 10:31 am
“Ask a foolish question, get a toolish answer. These people respond like they’d just been asked to run the Dubuque Community College Media Studies program.”
>>>>>
this comment. its a bit crass and too ivy, no?
January 31st, 2007 at 12:47 am
It’s spelled “Brodhead,” not “Broadhead,” for the President of Duke…
January 31st, 2007 at 1:08 am
I hope your name has some sort of ironic attachment to it.
January 31st, 2007 at 1:08 am
I hope your name has some sort of ironic attachment to it.
January 31st, 2007 at 10:53 am
although id like to say “yes” on behalf of grammergirl,
im thinking “no”.
d’oh!
January 31st, 2007 at 11:49 am
That’s so sad, grammergirl.
January 31st, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Alison Richards woooo!
Ivies suck Cambridge rules!
woooooooooooo!