<p>Condi Rice for Harvard
By Guy Darst
Saturday, March 4, 2006 - Metro-West Daily News</p>
<p>We were scratching our heads over the list of suspects being bandied about as prospects for the next president of Harvard – you know, the three-person, all-female list of the current or past presidents of Rensselaer Polytechnic, Duke, Wellesley, the University of Miami and the University of Wisconsin – when our eyes fell on the ideal candidate.
Secretary of State Condolezza Rice.
We wish wed thought of her before our brothers and sisters on the editorial page of the New York Sun, who advanced the name last week. Rice would bring stronger qualifications for the job than Shirley Ann Jackson, Donna Shalala or Nannerl O. Keohane, accomplished as those women are.</p>
<pre><code>They say Lawrence Summers had to fall on his sword in Massachusetts Hall because he lacked political skills, even though he had been secretary of the Treasury. Theres some truth to that.
Rice has demonstrated political skills of high order. As deputy national security adviser, she was in the thick of the mind-boggling events she wrote about (with a co-author) in “Germany Unified and Europe Transformed,” her last scholarly book. She had the wit to see that curmudgeonly John Bolton, undersecretary for arms control when she arrived at the State Department, was the ideal person to be ambassador to the United Nations (and thus out of her way in Washington). Someone who has led the Foreign Service and dealt with Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas is not going to be fazed by goldbrick professor on a left-wing faculty.
The other women are noted for being leaders of universities. Isnt it Rices turn? She was a successful provost at Stanford University, the No. 2 job, for six years (and professor of political science earlier, when she won awards for teaching). Her academic skills are top-notch. No Harvard degree? Why does that matter? The governing boards can vote her one. Keeping her out of Stanford will be a competitive boost for Harvard.
Harvard has not been for decades the sanctuary for WASP-y mediocrity that it was a century ago. Today it risks falling to the smelly little orthodoxies of political correctness. Rice would bring to Cambridge no more respect for those odors than Summers did. She is exactly what Harvard needs.
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<p>I imagine interesting clashes - professor friends at Stanford have told horror stories of Dr. Rice’s arrogantly brutal confrontations, so is it possible that she could be just another Summers, brilliant, but socially estranged.</p>
<p>i think i should just skip the next four years and ascend to the presidency.
if you pick me, i promise to have fabulous ice cream available in every square inch of campus at every hour of the day :)</p>
<p>that being said, if you all still want rice over me…whatever.</p>
<p>Condi Rice ideal to helm Harvard
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Sunday, March 5, 2006</p>
<p>There are multiple lists of suspects being bandied about as prospects for the next president of Harvard - you know, the three-person, all-female list of the current or past presidents of Rensselaer Polytechnic, Duke, Wellesley, the University of Miami and the University of Wisconsin. Others add the current dean of Harvard Law or the University of Pennsylvania - also both female.
But theres one truly ideal candidate, thus far advanced only by our fellow editorial writers at the New York Sun.
Their favorite candidate - and ours - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Rice would bring stronger qualifications to the job than Shirley Ann Jackson, Donna Shalala or Nannerl O. Keohane, accomplished as those women are.
They say Lawrence Summers had to fall on his sword in Massachusetts Hall because he lacked political skills, even though he had been secretary of the Treasury. Theres some truth to that.
Rice has demonstrated political skills of high order. As deputy national security adviser, she was in the thick of the mind-boggling events she wrote about (with a co-author) in Germany Unified and Europe Transformed, her last scholarly book.
She had the wit to see that curmudgeonly John Bolton, undersecretary for arms control when she arrived at the State Department, was the ideal person to be ambassador to the United Nations (and thus also out of her way in Washington). Someone who has led the Foreign Service and dealt with Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas is not going to be fazed by a goldbrick professor on a left-wing faculty.
Many of the other women are noted for being leaders of universities. Isnt it Rices turn? She was a successful provost at Stanford University, the No. 2 job, for six years (and professor of political science earlier, when she won awards for teaching). Her academic skills are top-notch.
It has been decades since Harvard was the sanctuary for WASPy mediocrity that it was a century ago. Today it risks falling to the smelly little orthodoxies of political correctness. Rice would bring to Cambridge no more respect for those odors than Summers did. She is exactly what Harvard needs.</p>
<p>I think Harvard doesn’t need Condi…
They NEED a kid like me…
Hard working, practical, imaginative, caring…</p>
<p>I can be the one to lead Harvard to real Success…</p>
<p>!Vote SR6622 for President of Harvard!</p>
<p>What H needs is a low profile kid who will do the job right.
So, Harvard administration do the right thing!
Vote for me and you will never have to worry again…</p>
<p>(PLUS…I need to do research and get some money somewhere in the summer, so give a brother the hook-up…)</p>
<p>I think Harvard will have no problem with a woman president. Harvard will also not have a problem with a Black president. A president without a Harvard degree can be finessed. But a president who is a Republican? That’s really asking for too much of the Harvard constituencies.</p>
<p>And thus the problem at Harvard and many other schools. There are surveys that have shown that higher education trends liberal. Your post really just confirms that sentiment. Too bad that differing views can not be held on our campuses where there should be open debate.</p>
<p>Good point. However, now that football has become America’s game displacing baseball perhaps the status of NFL commisioner is rising. Considering what happened to Summers, she may prefer the labor negotiations in the NFL to those of negotiating with the FAS faculty at Harvard.</p>
<p>Well, she’s turned down the NFL commissioner’s job, so maybe she is keeping herself available for Harvard:</p>
<p>Wed Mar 22, 1:34 PM ET</p>
<p>U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice officially turned her back on Wednesday on her dream job – commissioner of the National Football League.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately it came open at the wrong time,” said Rice, an avid fan of pro football and especially the Cleveland Browns.</p>
<p>The job is coming open after the commissioner for 16 years, Paul Tagliabue, announced on Tuesday he will retire in July.</p>
<p>Rice, who has served President George W. Bush first as national security adviser and now as secretary of state, has often fended off questions about a potential run for the U.S. presidency by saying she would prefer to be NFL commissioner.</p>
<p>“Obviously I’m very busy as secretary of state and intend to continue to be secretary of state as long as the president of the United States will have me,” Rice said on Wednesday while attending a meeting of 14 Caribbean nations in the Bahamas.</p>