<p>My take on Kirby: A superb scholar and a sweet man, who, in the mind of Summers and others, botched the curriculum reform because he is constitutionally ill-suited for doing the kind of strong-arming called for in order to push it through. As it stands, the program is so watered down as to hardly constitute a "reform" at all. A lot of little empires are threatened when courses are no longer required in certain disciplines. The elements most hostile to Summers are centered in these threatened empires.</p>