Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Today at CNN.Com I read an interesting story from CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) titled, Summers Talk of Legacy, Need for change at Harvard… Lawrence Summers is stepping  down Friday “after five tumultuous years as president of Harvard University .” The Associated Press asked him about his Harvard tenure, his responses show us part of the problem and why a need for change exists at Harvard.

AP: What do you expect will be the legacy of your presidency?

Summers: I think it's been a very good five years for the university. We've expanded our commitment to equal opportunity by becoming the first university in the country to eliminate tuition for families earning under $60,000, laid a foundation for that threshold to increase in the future. We've substantially increased the university's commitment to public service.

I guess he was speaking of the many who opposed him when he said, “They'll see it as a period when the university didn't shrink from things that were controversial.”

AP: If you could do it again, what would you have done differently?

Summers: There are always things one looks back at, but as I said in my commencement speech, I was a man in a hurry these last five years, because I thought the university could make enormous contributions not just to its students but to the world. So I did push very hard, maybe at some points too hard for an institution that is 370 years old. But my feeling is one of satisfaction with the magnitude of the changes that have taken place.

What do you think? Is change possible at Harvard... or was this the wrong leader at the wrong time...?