Light said he hoped that Summers would continue to place importance on extracurriculars, since his research has shown that they play a key role in student satisfaction.

There are also those who think Harvard is hard enough as it is.

“I thought the Harvard undergraduate experience was pretty academic already,” said Carswell Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah.

Beyond these more practical considerations, Summers also had much to say about the philosophy that should drive undergraduate education.

One of Summers’ most prominent points was that some students leave Harvard without sufficient knowledge of things scientific.

The future leaders of America, he said, would never admit to having not read Shakespeare, but would find it “acceptable not to know a gene from a chromosome.”

Summers’ hope, sources said, was to bring about a change in the definition of what it means to be educated.

Allston

On the prospect of a second campus across the river in Allston, Summers finally said what he had been hinting at all along—the multi-billion dollar planning and development of this campus would occur on his watch, guided by his hand.

And Summers continued to emphasize a theme he has been quietly hinting at since late summer—namely, that planning for Allston will take place on a University-wide basis.

Comparing the opportunity for a “campus that is several times as large as this Yard” to the planning that turned a swamp into the Harvard Business School and a train yard into the Kennedy School of Government, Summers stressed the importance that Allston holds to the University.

Harvard purchased more than 100 acres in Allston during previous administrations, but Summers’ declaration that Allston is slated to be an academic campus is the most concrete explanation of Harvard’s intentions by a president yet.

A University administrator said many felt that it was important for Summers to mention Allston in the speech, despite the risk of setting off a debate about always contentious community relations (see related story, page A-1).

When Harvard’s secret purchase of the Allston land was revealed several years ago, it was a public relations nightmare for the University. As Harvard has soothed Boston and Allston’s wounds, Cambridge officials have felt increasingly neglected.

The Allston situation has Harvard faculties edgy as well, as their fiercely guarded autonomy is threatened by the central planning.