50 Million Ways to Say You're Sorry

Harvard University has announced a new program to promote women and minorities in science and technology.

Lawrence H. Summers, the embattled president of Harvard University, announced yesterday that the university would spend at least $50 million over the next decade to recruit, support and promote women and members of underrepresented minority groups on its faculty.

Cynics might claim this is just the latest of the ritual public abasements Summers has been forced to undergo for his sins against political correctness, but we should give the alternative interpretation the consideration it deserves: when a school lacks a big name and a big pocketbook, some sweeteners are probably needed to attract a qualified staff.

In another story, NPR's Morning Edition today reported that this year 200,000 more women than men will receive college degrees. This is evidently just one of many symptoms that young men are having a tough time in life these days. This sad story prompted the NPR interviewer to ask if colleges were considering affirmative action to attract more males, but the academic interviewee slapped this down by pointing out how unfair that would be to the young women who had worked so hard and gotten better grades and scores than the men. Oddly enough, though, this prompted me to recall that boys score about 40-50 points higher on the SAT than girls. Elite college selection committees often chip in this difference to level the playing field.

Meanwhile, Sean Carroll continues to fight the good fight to gain women their rightful place in academia. I know I will sleep better for knowing it.

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