Furlaud’s cheeky story has prompted some consternation since it aired on the NPR program “The Next Big Thing” on Friday.

Producer Curtis Fox reported that as of today he had received roughly eight e-mails from listeners concerned about the sham proposal.

The President of Harvard’s Alumni Association, Charles L. Brock J.D. ’67, AMP ’79, who lives in New York, had not heard the report because he was out in the “hinterlands.” But he said the idea of leasing a Harvard Yard condominium thrilled him.

“That would be fantastic since I’m there a couple times per month. But it would be selfish,” he said.

The man calling himself Professor Gresham said the plan is impeccable, a perfect “shot in the arm” to Harvard’s concept of education, “which seems to have stalled.”

“The Harvard brand as you know is very valuable,” he said. “It serves as a ticket to Wall Street, success in politics, positions of power, in a word. Having Harvard online gives us the opportunity to open our brand up, educate more people at a higher level, for the betterment of society. And Harvard.”

Alan Stone explained that such a plan would be difficult to implement at Harvard, where he says the philosophy of learning is “classically deeply residential.”

Dan Moriarty, assistant provost for University Information Systems, could not be reached for comment, nor could Summers, who was away at a Red Sox game.

It was not clear whether they or other University administrators had heard of Furlaud’s shenanigans.

Furlaud, who has been a radio reporter for decades, began her “Unreliable Narrator” feature while working for the BBC in Paris. The directors in London didn’t always get her humor, she said, but the reception has been much better in the U.S.

All of Furlaud’s interviewees are friends, who she said are often more convincing than actors.

Roscoe Dullich, an English professor who teaches “Chaucer, Henry James, and Einstein,” is actually Justin Kaplan, the editor of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, while Professor Gresham was played by a doctor who went to Yale.

—Staff writer Alex L. Pasternack can be reached at apastern@fas.harvard.edu.