Adam Goodman | A Faustian bargain

It must have been the fifth time that month my freshman English class had been interrupted. We all looked up from our copies of Macbeth to find the upper school director leading the latest candidate for a new dean of students into the classroom.

The idea was for the candidate to "observe" the classroom dynamic, or something to that effect. I'm not sure how much the candidates got out of their observations of my class pretending to understand Shakespeare, but by the third visit, my classmates and I had made a keen observation of our own: Every candidate being interviewed was black.

It was clear what the administration was looking for, and it inevitably tainted our perception of the man they eventually hired.

With its high-profile selection last week of Drew Faust as the school's first female president in its illustrious 371-year history, Harvard may have made a similarly well-intentioned, but misguided, mistake.

The story begins at a January 2005 economics conference. Former Harvard President Larry Summers threw political correctness to the wind and candidly (or stupidly . or both) suggested that "innate differences" at the extremes of intelligence may help explain why women are under-represented at the upper echelons of science and engineering professions.

The comments ignited a bona fide political firestorm, which, after two no-confidence votes at the hands of an enraged faculty, culminated in Summers's resignation last February.

"The controversy played a huge role in Faust's selection," said Richard Bradley, author of Harvard Rules: The Struggle for the Soul of the World's Most Powerful University. "In virtually every way you can think of, Faust is the antithesis of Summers. He's male, she's female. He had a pretty aggressive style of leadership; she's more listening-oriented and consultative. He was an outsider candidate; she's from inside Harvard's halls. You can't look at Faust's presidency without the context of Summers's."

But Faust doesn't just happen to be female. Aside from being an eminent scholar of the American South, Faust is a prominent feminist who directed Penn's Women Studies Program from 1996 to 2000. She was then appointed in 2001 as dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, which, according to its mission statement, "sustains a continuing commitment to the study of women, gender, and society."

In that sense, it's not such a stretch to see Faust's selection as Harvard's ultimate repudiation of Summers's unwelcome ideas. Faust herself acknowledged the irony when she bitingly told The Crimson, "I think women have the aptitude to do anything, and that includes being president of Harvard."

While Harvard certainly didn't confine its search to women, whether or not Faust's gender was a motivating factor in their decision is unfortunately a legitimate question.

In early January, The Crimson reported that the presidential search committee "declined to comment whether gender will play any role" in the selection process, which at the very least arouses suspicion.

This, along with Faust's resume and Harvard's desperate desire to repent for Summers's sins provides compelling insight into the university's choice. Decide for yourself whether Faust would have been chosen had she not been a member of the fairer sex.

Meanwhile, the higher education community is waxing triumphant at this "monumental" step for gender equality, even while denying that sex had anything to do with it.

Donna Shavlik, former head of the American Council on Education's Office of Women in Higher Education, told Inside Higher Ed that, "It's extremely important that we have a women's studies scholar in this position."

Carol Hollenshead, a director of women's education at the University of Michigan, echoed similar sentiments in the same article, arguing that Faust's selection is "incredibly significant symbolically."

And, appearing on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer Monday night, Faust joined in on the high-fiving when she told Lehrer, "It symbolizes important changes in the place of women in higher education ... I'm the symbol."

For all the talk about symbols and breaking barriers and what Faust represents, the rhetoric is self-defeating. As it did on a smaller scale at my high school, placing a premium on political correctness calls into question a candidate's qualifications independent of his, or her, gender or color.

Because of the gender-conscious nature of the selection, Faust's appointment represents nothing at best, and a setback for women at worst.

To achieve true gender equality, women can't have the glass ceiling deliberately removed for them by well-meaning men eager to prove that they're committed to 21st-century ideals. That only undermines the merits of their achievements. Faust isn't a symbol, and she shouldn't encourage people to turn her into one.

I truly hope Drew Faust succeeds, but I'm afraid the damage has already been done.

Adam Goodman is a College sophomore from La Jolla, Calif. His e-mail address is goodman@dailypennsylvanian.com. A Damn Good Man appears on Fridays.

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