This article is taken from The Chronicle of Higher Education (http://www.chronicle.com):
Monday, October 15, 2001
New Harvard President Outlines Goals, Including Major Campus Expansion
By RON SOUTHWICK
Lawrence H. Summers, the new president of Harvard University, outlined a number of ambitious
goals in his inaugural address Friday, including plans to build a new campus several times larger
than Harvard Yard, hiring more professors to bolster undergraduate education, and laying out a
challenge for the faculty to find ways to improve classroom instruction.
Mr. Summers, a U.S. treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, said he was determined to
build a new campus in Boston's Allston neighborhood, which is across the river from Harvard's
current campus in Cambridge, Mass. He recalled the vision of Harvard administrators in building
the John F. Kennedy School of Government in what was once a train yard. He called for a
similar commitment to build a campus in Allston.
"The university in this regard has a historic opportunity to create a new Harvard campus for
centuries to come," Mr. Summers said.
A former economics professor at Harvard, Mr. Summers pledged to hire more faculty members
to strengthen undergraduate teaching at Harvard. He also said that Harvard's professors needed to
continually examine their teaching to find ways to improve. He said the faculty and
administration should be "thinking carefully about what we teach, and how we teach."
In addition, Mr. Summers said he wanted to improve the science education of all undergraduate
students, even if they were studying the humanities. While most Harvard students are familiar
with Shakespeare's works, he said, "it is all too common and all too acceptable not to know a
gene from a chromosome."
Although Mr. Summers has teaching experience, his Harvard presidency marks his first as the
chief administrator of a college or university. He earned plaudits for his teaching of economics at
Harvard before he left in 1991 to become the chief economist of the World Bank. He became
treasury secretary in 1999.
Mr. Summers offered words of praise for Neil L. Rudenstine, who stepped down as Harvard's
president earlier this year. During his tenure, Mr. Rudenstine completed a $2.6-billion capital
campaign. "His vision, his dedication, his care, have left Harvard far stronger than when he
found it," Mr. Summers said of his predecessor.