Harvard University president Lawrence Summers announced his resignation on Tuesday. He is leaving the post after a tumultuous five-year tenure.
Controversy surrounding his position has been circulating among Harvard faculty members throughout his time at Harvard, according to the New York Times. In 2001, prominent African-American studies professor Cornel West left the university for a post at Princeton after disagreements with Summers.
Summers' resignation appears to have directly precipitated from the resignation of William Kirby, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, three weeks ago. Last January, Summers' comment that a lack of women studying math and science might be due to differences in "intrinsic aptitude" sparked heated debate and led to a March vote of no confidence from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Summers told reporters on Feb. 21, "I looked at the extent of the rancor that had emerged in parts of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the extent to which for many I personally had become a large issue, and concluded very reluctantly that the agenda for the university that I cared about - as well as my own satisfaction - would be best served by stepping down."
Summers, an economist and former secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration, became one of Harvard's youngest professors to be granted tenure at age 28, according to the Wall Street Journal. After a year-long sabbatical, he may return to a teaching post in the Economics department.
Beginning on July 1, former Harvard president Derek C. Bok, 75, will begin a post as interim president while the university's governing board searches for a permanent successor. Bok served as Harvard president from 1971-1991.
