“You have contributed significantly to the work of the university,” Summers wrote, “and your advice and counsel will be missed.”
Dr. James Houghton, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, says the board decided to release copies of both letters with Harper’s permission and at Summers’ urging.
Houghton also says the board decided to give Summers a raise after weighing the “difficulties of the past year” against Summers’ “broader efforts and contributions.”
He says the decision was made after the board’s regular spring meeting and “after further discussion and reflection in the weeks that followed.”
Harper says that he wanted to discuss Summers’ performance and salary at a recent board “retreat,” but Houghton had told him before the retreat that he already had decided to give Summers a raise.
“I cannot in good conscience remain a member of the Corporation when the procedures that should guide our deliberations are not followed,” Harper wrote.
Harper, who was elected to the Harvard Corporation five years ago, was on the search committee that selected Summers in 2001. A 1965 graduate of Harvard Law School, Harper is a partner at the New York law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
His successor has not yet been named.
— Associated Press
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