I believe we must commend a leader at another institution of higher education: Yale President Richard C. Levin. Though he did not close the university, he took steps beyond providing counseling services and sending out a mass e-mail. Like Summers, Levin also e-mailed the university to express his sympathy and grief. He contacted the community just an hour after the attack, however, and not in the mid-afternoon. Levin extended Yale’s shopping period by a week so as to compensate for the time students may need to reflect, mourn and pray. He kept university dining halls open late into the night, providing a place where students could congregate to express their thoughts. Levin even permitted off-campus housing students to attend these dining hall discussion groups.

At Harvard, I feel lucky that Summers spoke during Tuesday’s vigil at Memorial Church.

Harvard always seems to jump at the opportunity to substantiate and bolster its reputation as a top academic institution. This was the University’s opportunity to demonstrate its dynamism—to show that there is a heart beating behind the stolid white capitals of its facades. Alas, I guess the University and New York City have something in common.

—Justin D. Gest