“Look at their backgrounds,” Smith says. “One is a professional economist, trained in arenas like the World Bank where corporate interests and efficiency are at the center, as opposed to a former dean of students.”

Indeed, Summers told the council this week that neither side of the living wage debate can claim moral superiority.

He said the College also has the responsibility to fulfill prior collective bargaining agreements and to assure donors that their money will be spent on education.

“The community has already had a discussion on the morality of the living wage issue,” Smith counters. “We all agree it’s worth it to make worker’s lives better—after all, that’s the charge of the [Katz] committee.”

A Less Cordial Relationship

The dynamic between the new president and PSLM is far less “cordial” than the relationship the group had developed with Rudenstine, Elfenbein says.

The former president seemed to have grown accustomed to the student protesters.

But although repeated meetings with Rudenstine took a friendly tone, Elfenbein says they were ultimately unproductive.

“His cordiality with us did not translate into any kind of true responsiveness,” she says.

Summers’ perception of PSLM, however, seems to be based primarily on impressions formed during the sit-in last spring.

“I think that our relationship with Summers hasn’t had a chance to develop into a productive one yet,” Elfenbein says.

At Monday’s council meeting, Summers implied that he might have responded more harshly than Rudenstine to the Mass. Hall occupation.

“It is very wrong when attempts are made to shut down portions of the University to intimidate people from carrying on their work,” Summers said at Monday’s council meeting.

To PSLM members, Summers’ reference to the tactics as “coercive” came as a slap in the face.