“Twenty years—that is the average length of a Harvard President’s tenure, and that is why our vote today matters,” he said. “If we do not speak clearly, the Corporation and public will believe that we are content.”
Immediately after Matory’s speech, East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department Chair Philip A. Kuhn introduced a motion to table Matory’s motion indefinitely, urging Faculty members to devote their attention instead to discussions of the curricular review and other issues facing FAS.
“The motion just proposed is needlessly divisive,” Kuhn said. “What we need at this point in not division but cohesion. We need not extremes, but middle ground that will let us go forward.”
Professors debated both motions until approximately 5 p.m., when the Faculty rejected Kuhn’s motion to table by a close voice vote.
Several professors who spoke said that it was important that the Faculty vote on Matory’s motion so that they could clear the air and ultimately put the issue behind them.
“It would seem unwise to detour this motion by parliamentary maneuver. It or a ghostly incarnation would come back and leave us no peace. Whether the motion passes or fails, it is important to face and not deflect it,” English and American Literature and Language Department Chair James Engell said.
At 5:12 p.m., soon after Kuhn’s motion was defeated, Matory’s motion was brought to a vote.
Faculty members filled out ballots handed out before the meeting and deposited them into boxes that were circulated by members of the docket committee.
While the docket committee left the room to count the votes, Skocpol presented her censure motion to the Faculty.
She said her motion is a signal that professors are “looking for real changes...not simply the statement of intent to change things.”
Some professors spoke against both motions, saying that they represent an attempt to stifle discourse and debate in what should be an atmosphere of academic freedom.
“Academic freedom is on trial, and...a victory for President Summers’ critics will be a very significant blow to academic freedom in American higher education,” said Winthrop Professor of History Stephan Thernstrom, who likened criticism of Summers to McCarthy-era tactics of suppressing free speech.
And Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature Ruth R. Wisse quoted extensively from John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, in which the 19th-century philosopher defends the freedom of speech.
But Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature Susan R. Suleiman rejected Thernstrom and Wisse’s argument that Summers’ critics were silencing free speech.
“The one thing that really pushes my buttons is when people try to paint every legitimate action as a form of political correctness. I really find that that is a blunt instrument and that is McCarthyite tactics,” she said, provoking applause from many faculty members.
Though Summers traditionally chairs Faculty meetings, he asked Kirby to lead today’s meeting. Kirby also led the Feb. 22 continuation of the Faculty’s last full meeting in early February.
—Staff writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu
—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.