Summers also chalked up that conflict to miscommunication.
More recently, Summers has drawn fire from faculty over comments denouncing the divestment from Israel movement as anti-Semitic.
And while Summers said that a decade in Washington has taught him to choose his words wisely, at last week’s talk, he caused one female scholar, Nancy Hopkins ’64, to leave the conference feeling physically ill.
“You learned very quickly that the right way to handle things was to speak with restraint,” Summers told The Crimson in 2001 of his time in Washington. “Being provocative and interesting wasn’t always good.”
But “provocative and interesting” was his aim at the conference, and continues to be a hallmark of his leadership style.
—Staff writer Stephen M. Marks can be reached at marks@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Lauren A. E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.