ANNE-
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The wrong woman for the job
Why Harvard should have chosen the most qualified person
for the top job, not the most politically correct
I
assess
Wednsda, Fbrury 1, 007 - Te ici D.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Scrotumsounded "(It)is just a wrong way to
Sc u characterize the commander
to Lucky like some- in chief's decision to do what
thing green that is necessary to protect our
comes up when you soldiers in harm's way."
- PRESIDENT BUSH on the allegation that he is
trying to provoke Iran and that the administraion
cough too malready has plans to invade the country.
- SUSAN PATRON in her children's book "I loved her ... It was real."
"The Higher Power of Lucky." The use
of the word "scrotum" in a book meant - KENNY CHESNEY on his relationship with actress
for child h d Rene Zellweger. The country music star was
fryoung chdrenhascausedsome responding to questions about his sexual orientation.
librarians to try to get it banned.
rew Gilpin Faust, like her
literary namesake, must
have made a deal with the
devil to become president of Har-
vard University.
How else could a Civil War
and gender studies expert with
just five years of administrative
experience take the reins of the
nation's most prestigious univer-
sity?
After previous Harvard Presi-
dent Lawrence Summers's sug-
gestion that women might be
inherently inferior in math and
science, Faust appears to be a
candidate apologetically chosen
by a Harvard search committee
desperately trying to maintain the
school's reputation.
The question remains: Why
pick Drew Gilpin Faust over a
candidate like Mary Sue Cole-
man, president of the University
of Michigan? Was it politics?
Popularity? Regardless of the
search committee's thinking, it
was a dubious decision. Coleman,
despite her constant pub-
lic insistence that she
wasn't interested
in the job, would
have been a bet-
ter choice.
Coleman has more than 10
years of experience as the presi-
dent of the University of Michigan
and the University of Iowa. At
Michigan, she oversees a $5.7 bil-
lion endowment, more than $300
million in annual state funding
and thousands of employees.
As dean of Harvard's Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study,
Faust currently supervises 81 staff
members, 15 professors and a $16
million budget.
A career academic who has
written several books about the
American Civil War, Faust took
charge of the Radcliffe Insti-
tute in 2001, just two years after
the former women's liberal arts
college merged with Harvard.
She is also the current chair of
Harvard's $50 million Task Force
on Women Faculty. Before coming
to Harvard, she was chair of the
women's studies program at the
University of Pennsylvania.
Members of the search com-
cies are wildly successful, Faust's
gender will likely overshadow
her accomplishments in the eyes
of Harvard faculty and adminis-
tration. Some higher education
experts have publicly questioned
whether there could be such a
thing as too much feminism.
"Dr. Faust comes to the presi-
dency of the world's most distin-
guished university out of a career
whose foremost characteristic
has been its strong feminist bent,
So you didn't get
into Harvard?
At least our
president is better.
rather than executive experi-
ence," said Steve Balch, president
of the National Association of
Scholars, in a written statement.
In a vitriolic column in the City
Journal, columnist Heather Mac
Donald criticized the Radcliffe
Institute as "one of the most pow-
erful incubators of feminist com-
plaint and nonsensical academic
theory in the country."
Although critics have labeled
Faust as merely a political choice,
Faust has been quick to defend
herself.
"I'm not the woman president
of Harvard, I'm the president of
Harvard," she told the Associated
Press last week.
Perhaps she could learn a les-
son from Coleman, who estab-
lished herself as the first president
of the University of Michigan
with poise. Like Faust, she played
down the importance of her role
as Michigan's first woman presi-
dent.
"This is a hard job, a stressful
job - for men and women," Cole-
man told The Michigan Daily
after she was named president in
2002. "I think the pressures are
SHAY SPANIOLA/Daily
LEFT: Drew Gilpin Faust is Harvard's
new president. She's a popularschoice
internally, hat sawn wonder it she was
the most qualified candidate. RIGHT:
University President Mary Sue Cole-
man, was just the type ot woman Lorry
Summers torget about when he wade
the comments that got him fired.
the same."
Although Coleman could also
be called a feminist - she has
often preached the importance
of achieving gender equality in
higher education - she's a differ-
ent kind of feminist.
Rather than writing about
discrimination against women,
Coleman overcame that discrimi-
nation to become a prominent
laboratory chemist - a field tradi-
tionally dominated by men.
While Faust is known for books
with titles like "Mothers of Inven-
tion: Women of the Slaveholding
South in the American Civil War,"
Coleman authored or co-authored
hundreds of scholarly papers with
titles like "Characterization of
purine nucleoside phosphorylase
from human granulocytes and its
metabolism of deoxyribonucleo-
sides."
Notice a difference? Disregard-
ing the merit of each woman's
work, Coleman's can't be dis-
missed by cynics as femi-
nist ramblings.
Coleman could
have lent a
scientist's
perspective'
to Har-
vard, which is currently preparing
to begin construction on a new
campus for groundbreaking sci-
ence research in the Allston area
of Boston.
Imagine what critics will
say when Faust gets involved in
debates about the new science
campus. "What does a women's
studies professor know about sci-
ence," some will ask. "What does
any woman know about science?"
the less abashed ones will shriek.
By choosing a relatively inexpe-
rienced candidate from an often-
disrespected field, Harvard left
the door open for critics to assert
that Faust was chosen more for
her gender than for her skills.
Faust's experience in academia
and administration has smeared
her reputation in a society where
contempt toward feminism has
taken the place of contempt
toward women. What Harvard
really needed was a woman like
Coleman, who rose to the top of a
respected scientific field without
drawing attention to her sex.
Harvard is ready for a
woman president.
It just isn't yet
ready for a wom-
en's studies presi-
dent.
TALKING
POINTS
Three things you can talk about this week:
1. Iran
2. The possibility that Iran is lending Iraqi insurgents
weapons, including the deadly roadside bombs
termed explosively formed penetrators (E.F.P.)
3. Fox's Half Hour News Hour
And three things you can't:
1. Britney's new hairdo
2. Midterms
3. The Daily Show
BY THE NUMBERS
Percentage of Russians who have little to no confidence in Russian
President Vladimir Putin
Percentage of Americans who have little to no confidence in Putin
Percentage of Americans who have little to no confidence in Bush
Source: Surveys conducted by the Pew Research center in December
YOUTUBE
VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
Why biology class
was better when
drugs were OK
When the liberated decades of
the 1960s and '70s petered out,
Americans lost fake eyelashes, tol-
erance toward destructive mind-
altering drugs and great Bob Dylan
music. We also lost something else:
Entertaining educational videos.
In 1971, Stanford University's
Robert Weiss put together a short
film on protein synthesis for the
biology department. It features at
least 50 students playing molecules
that are forming a protein, align-
ing themselves in the appropriate
formations for an overhead camera
Like a jubilant, but ill-disciplined
marching band.
The voice over explainswhat'shap-
pening in verse littered with imagi-
nary words, reminiscent of Lewis
Carrol's poem the Jabberwocky:
"Oh frabjous day. Callooh! Callay!
The protein chain came streaming
out!" the narrator exclaims.
It's strange, and vaguely sexual,
but it beats the hell out of the bio
lectures we sit through today.
ANNE VANDERMEY
See this and other YouTube videos of
the week at
youtube.com/user/michigandaily
L
THEMED PARTY SUGGESTION
Recuperation from Mardi Gras - Last night you
were probably living it up, so celebrate the beginning
of Lent with a stiff screwdriver and a little penance.
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
OF THE WEEK
Frottage
Frottage is sexual activity without penetration that can include
any form of sexual rubbing, whether naked or clothed, for arousal or
orgasm.
Frottage can include mutual genital rubbing, sometimes called geni-
to-genital or GG rubbing:
*penile-vulval rubbing without penetration for a male-assigned
and a female-assigned person
* frot, penile-penile rubbing for two males
* tribadism, vulval-vulval rubbing for two females
Also nonmutual genital rubbing:
* intercrural intercourse, also known as interfemoral intercourse,
placing the penis between a partner's thighs, from the front or rear
* mammary intercourse, putting the penis between the other
person's breasts
oaxillary intercourse, putting the penis in the other person's arm-
pit (Also known as 'Bagpiping')
* rubbing genitals against any part of the partner's body, such as
clitoris against thigh or penis against abdomen.