Poll: Harvard students say President Summers should stay (Crimson: 2.20.06)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>By a three-to-one margin, undergraduates do not think that Lawrence H. Summers should resign his post as University president, according to a poll conducted by The Crimson this weekend. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=511421%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=511421&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Interesting, in light of this Crimson editorial comment on Friday:</p>

<p>"On a similar note, we hope the UC does not act on suggestions of holding a campus referendum of student confidence in University President Lawrence H. Summers. Setting aside our opposition to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) upcoming vote, conducting a student poll would have a highly tenuous basis. The relationship between Summers and students is often ambiguous and students’ understanding of that relationship far from adequate. These problems are compounded by the fact that any phrasing of the question would have undue influence over the outcome of a binary poll. Finally, we are concerned that such a poll would only be public posturing that would not aid the crisis the University appears to be on the brink of."</p>

2

<p>"By a three-to-one margin, undergraduates do not think that Lawrence H. Summers should resign his post as University president, according to a poll conducted by The Crimson this weekend.</p>

<p>Just 19 percent of undergraduates in the survey said that Summers should resign, while about 57 percent said he should not. The online survey polled 424 students and carried a margin of error of approximately 4.6 percent.</p>

<p>“I think he's doing a fine job,” said Derek J. Horton ’08. “I know the faculty hates him, but I think he's kind of running Harvard like a business—and I respect that,” Horton said yesterday in an interview in Currier House dining hall..."</p>

<p>(IMHO, a poll of Alumni would show even stronger support for President Summers)</p>